Category: Middle East

Citizens in Laos are calling for accountability after learning that gasoline smugglers and enablers in the government are defrauding the country out of taxes on 700 million liters (about 185 million US liquid gallons) of gasoline per year, sources told RFA. Prime Minister Phankham Viphavanh revealed the extent of gas smuggling in an address to the National Assembly last week. Laos is mired in perhaps its worst gasoline shortage in its history, exacerbated by rising prices, a lack of foreign currency and a rapid depreciation of Laos’ currency, the kip. “According to our internal report, around 1.2 billion liters of gasoline is imported to our country [each year]. However, when we check with the exporters of both Thailand and Vietnam, they are sending us around 1.9 billion liters of gasoline,” Phankham Viphavanh said. “Where are those 700 million liters?” he asked, accusing state officials and companies of corruption. Members of the government who allow smugglers to get out of paying taxes should be punished, said Laotian sources, all of whom requested anonymity for safety reasons. “This is an act of corruption. Those who want money will do whatever they can to get it and this will lead to a leak in government revenue,” a citizen of the capital Vientiane told RFA Lao. “If the government can prevent this kind of problem, it will be better for the country. If they can find out the government officials and whoever else is involved, they should all be fined and fired,” the source said. Another source told RFA that the country’s lax law enforcement allows corruption to flourish. “There is no strong punishment for corrupt government officials in Laos. They just transfer them to other offices somewhere else. I am not sure if there will ever be a strong punishment for them,” the second source said. “They are too flexible over this matter in Laos. If the government is serious about curbing corruption, they can do it and it will be good for our country. We have laws, but at this moment the laws can do nothing.” A Lao analyst told RFA that Laos needs to set up an investigative committee to go after corrupt officials and expose them to the public. “There is no accountable investigation and punishment from the relevant authorities,” the analyst said. “It is common to hear leaked information that the government found some people involved with revenue collection, but there is no punishment. “This is why nobody is afraid of the law and the corrupt officials will just get more money.” A proposal to immediately punish corrupt officials instead of reeducating them is under consideration at the National Assembly after it was introduced last week by Assemblywoman Valy Vetsaphong, who is also the deputy president of the Lao National Chamber of Industry and Commerce. A Lao official who declined to be named said that the gasoline smuggling issue is under investigation. “They are finding ways to solve this problem. The gasoline shortage still continues and it is a big headache for the government,” the official said. “We have already negotiated with our Thai trade partners to bring in more gasoline, but it will take time to return to normal.” According to a May 2022 report from Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Laos imports around 100 million to 120 million liters of fuel a month on average. Thus, it costs around $600 million to $700 million to import enough fuel for one year. However, prices are actually double in Laos due to the increasing price of oil on the world market. Closed for price gouging Gas stations in Laos that allegedly attempted to capitalize on the gasoline shortage by increasing prices have been closed for cheating their customers, sources told RFA. “The authorities inspected all the gas stations in this province and found that three of them had been overcharging,” an official of the Industry and Trade Department of the northern province of Luang Namtha told RFA. “They were selling gas at about 2,000-3,000 kip [$0.13-0.20] higher than the government price per liter. Our province has rules that control gas prices so we suspended those three gas stations,” he said. There are however many gas stations that can only get fuel by buying it from abroad, and to do that, they need dollars or Thai baht. Due to a shortage of foreign currency, businesses cannot get as much as they need at the official rate from banks, so they must pay more for foreign currency from other sources. This, in turn, forces them to raise gas prices. “We understand that the pumps get foreign currency from other sources and at higher rates but we have rules to abide by too,” the official said. “The owners of the three pumps will be fined 5 million kip [$333].” A gas station owner in the town of Luang Namtha linked higher gas prices with higher exchange rates. “We can’t get foreign currency from the banks, so we get foreign currencies … from private money exchange outlets at much higher rates. We can’t sell gas at the prices set by the government, we’ll lose a lot of money,” he said. The gas shortage has forced small gas stations to close in Vientiane, leaving only the big companies in business, a motorist in the city told RFA. “Only the large ones like Petroleum of Thailand and the Lao state fuel enterprise are able to be open,” the motorist said. Authorities of the Industry and Trade Department of Champassak Province in southern Laos also inspected all gas stations in the province between June 21 and 28 and found seven gas stations were selling gasoline at higher prices. According to the newspaper of Champassak Province, the authorities put locks on each gas pump, booked and fined the owners and sent them for reeducation. According to the GlobalPetrolPrices.com website, the average price of gas in Laos was 28,070 kip per liter, or $7.13 per gallon as of June 27. Translated by Phouvong. Written in English by…

Police in northwestern Laos’ Bokeo province rescued nearly 500 trapped workers in the past year, including about 200 women who were victims of human trafficking in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, a provincial official said. Bokeo Deputy Gov. Khamphaya Phompanya told Kikeo Khaykhamphithoune, Laos’ deputy prime minister and chairman of the National Committee on Anti-Human Trafficking, during a June 14 meeting that police rescued 477 workers between May 2021 and May 2022. The smallest and least populous province in the landlocked country is home to the SEZ, a gambling and tourism hub catering to the Chinese situated along the Mekong River where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. In 2018, the U.S. government sanctioned the Chinese tycoon who is said to run the SEZ as head of a trafficking network. Most of those rescued have been Lao nationals lured by middlemen to perform jobs as scammers trying to convince people to invest or buy shares in the Kings Romans Casino. When they couldn’t meet their sales quotas, they were detained against their will, and in some cases sold off to work in the sex industry. “Our police department estimates that there are a lot of workers who are still being abused in the Golden Triangle SEZ in Bokeo province and haven’t been rescued,” Khamphaya said during the meeting. “Rescuing workers in the SEZ is not easy because the SEZ is controlled by the Chinese, and not accessible by the Lao authorities.” Lao authorities cannot easily enter the Chinese-run zone, which operates largely beyond the reach of the Lao government. Provincial police officers have been able to rescue workers being held against their will by their employer only after the women have contacted the authorities. At the end of the meeting, Kikeo said that the Lao government began implementing a five-year anti-human trafficking plan to crack down on human trafficking nationwide in 2021. Bokeo province officials have put in place their own measures to protect SEZ workers. In February, they began requiring all employers to sign labor contracts that ensure workers have a safe workplace, insurance benefits and fair wages. The authorities also prohibit forced labor and require regular monitoring and reporting of work and living conditions to the provincial management office. Once the contracts are signed, workers receive a province-issued smart card showing their identity and the name of their employer. Labor contract disputes A Bokeo province police officer, who like other sources requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA that authorities know there are still many more abused and trapped workers in the SEZ, but they don’t know the number. “[M]any Lao and foreign workers have been abused [while] having labor disputes with Chinese employers,” he said. “For example, they couldn’t do the jobs, and the employers wouldn’t give them any food and water, or would detain them or sell them to massage parlors and brothels.” “We don’t know the number because the SEZ is a Chinese territory,” the police officer said. “We can go in there only when we’re allowed to.” A member of Bokeo’s anti-human trafficking unit said it also was difficult to rescue trapped workers because they have signed employment contracts. “We can’t help many workers such as those who have labor contracts with their employers for six months or one year,” he said. “They have to abide by the contracts. We can help only those who are abused and didn’t sign the contracts.” A Lao woman who recently escaped from the SEZ confirmed that human trafficking is still occurring despite the Lao government’s efforts. “Right now, they [human traffickers] are still recruiting Lao and Thai girls, women and men to work in the SEZ,” she told RFA, adding that recruiters usually are paid 15,000 baht (U.S. $425) for each person they recruit. “Many workers experience all kinds of hardship and still continue to work in the SEZ because they come from very poor families,” she said. “They have no other choice but to work there.” Another former SEZ worker said when middlemen tried to sell him women, he declined because he pitied them. “In the SEZ, a woman can be sold for sex for 2,000 yuan (U.S. $300) per night or 400 yuan (U.S. $60) for one time.” Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Four civilians and a local militia member were found killed Monday after a three-day raid by junta troops and allied fighters on a village in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region that saw 10,000 civilians flee the area, Myanmar sources say. The five victims, whose charred bodies were discovered after being left behind by departing junta soldiers, were buried by residents of Chaung-U township’s Nyaungbin Tae village when they returned following the attack, one local villager told RFA on Tuesday. A military column combining Myanmar military and fighters from the Pyu Saw Htee, a pro-junta armed group, had entered the village on Saturday, RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “When they arrived, all the villagers ran to safety, leaving only four or five people behind in the village,” the source said. “During the raid, one of the village guards was killed by artillery fire, but we weren’t able to recover his body until the soldiers left the village on June 20. “We later found all the bodies and buried them yesterday,” the source said. Killed in Nyaungbin Tae by junta troops and allied fighters were 20-year-old Toe Naing Win, a member of a local People’s Defense Force unit set up to oppose junta rule; Paw Kyi, 52, whose body was found burned in a house; and 37-year-old Ne Win and 49-year-old Pyay Aye, whose bodies were found in a cornfield nearby, sources said. The body of Aung Min, 48, was later found outside the village, they said. The June 18 raid on the village was carried out by a force of around 80 junta soldiers, all in plain clothes, a local anti-junta militia member told RFA, also declining to be named. “There was no fighting, no clash,” the source said. “They entered the village after shelling it with heavy weapons, and one of our comrades was killed by an artillery shell. Two others were injured, one in the hand and the other on his body. “Four men were killed in the village altogether, three of them when their house was set on fire. One other man was shot dead in the road when he would not carry the soldiers’ stuff,” he said. The soldiers may have been attached to Light Infantry Battalions 357, 368 and 369, and were accompanied by pro-junta fighters from the Pyu Saw Htee pro-junta militia, he added. Before leaving Nyaungbin Tae, soldiers looted the village’s nearly 275 homes of cash, jewelry and other valuables, villagers said. ‘We all had to run’ Also speaking to RFA, a 70-year-old villager confirmed that junta soldiers had attacked Nyaungbin Tae with heavy weapons. “We all had to run, and older women who could not run had to be taken away on motorcycles,” the villager said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. “One woman who was paralyzed had to be left behind in the village,” he said. “The men who were killed were too attached to their livestock and refused to leave. They were seized and killed. Now I don’t even want to hear anything about the army, and I don’t want to see them,” he added. Requests for comment by junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Htun received no reply. Sagaing has been the scene of some of the fiercest fighting to take place between junta troops and opposition forces since Myanmar’s military overthrew civilian rule in a February 2021 coup. Villagers say junta forces have indiscriminately attacked communities, killing civilians, torching homes and forcing thousands to flee in search of safety. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Three people died Thursday after junta forces fired artillery shells at a farm in Mui Tui village in Chin State’s Mindat township, residents told RFA. Yaw Man, an official from Mindat People’s Administration which is engaged in armed resistance, said a man and two women died when shells exploded. He said the military council’s Infantry Battalion No. 274 started shelling villages in the northern part of the city on Thursday morning. Mui Tai village is located 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) from Mindat. “A 70-year-old man, a 60-year-old woman and a 30-year-old woman working on the farm died on the spot. Another was wounded by bullets. The shells also landed in the village. Three houses were destroyed there,” said Yaw Man, adding the the injured man was being treated at a charity clinic near Mindat Township.  Residents told RFA that Infantry Battalion No. 274, which is based in Mindat, fired shells seven times targeting villages, including Mui Tui, in the north of Mindat city from around 9:30 a.m. Locals said the army was not targeting local People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), but deliberately aiming at the villages. Calls to a military council spokesman by RFA on Thursday morning went unanswered. In the past, the spokesman has said the army had to open fire to destroy villages where local PDFs were sheltering and conducting military training. On May 23, heavy artillery fired by Infantry Battalion No. 274 hit a house in Madat village critically injuring an 11-year-old boy whose right leg had to be amputated. Chin State was one of the first regions in Myanmar to form militias to fight the military following the coup in February last year. More than 200 people have been killed in the state since then according to the Chin Human Rights Organization (CHRO), which monitors human rights abuses. At least 10 civilians have been killed in Mindat City and Mindat Township since February 1, 2021. Fighting between junta troops and local militias has forced nearly 90,000 locals to flee their homes in Chin State.