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Category: South Asia

China, North Korea mark 75th anniversary of ties in muted tone

Editor06 mins

Chinese President Xi Jinping and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have marked the 75th anniversary of their countries’ relations but the messages they exchanged were less effusive and shorter than in the past, hinting at cooler ties. Xi’s message to Kim this year, published by China’s Xinhua News Agency, was 309 characters long, compared with 435 characters in 2019, for the 70th anniversary. Similarly, Kim’s message to Xi, published by the Korean Central News Agency, was 497 characters this year, down from 809 characters in 2019. But it wasn’t just the length of the messages that was different. Xi told Kim that relations between their countries had “stood the changes of the times and the trials of an ever-changing international situation and become a precious asset common to the two countries and the two peoples.” Xi added that China was ready to further develop relations “through strengthened strategic communications and coordination, and deepened friendly exchange and cooperation.” But Xi did not use the phrases he used in the 70th anniversary celebration, such as “the traditional friendship between China and the DPRK has grown stronger over time and gone deep into the hearts of the people.” DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Kim referred to Xi in 2019 as his “esteemed” comrade but he dropped that salutation this year.  “Our Party and the government of the Republic will steadily strive to consolidate and develop the friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and China as required by the new era,” Kim said.  This year, the messages between Xi and Kim were published on page four of North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun daily. In 2019, they were splashed across the newspaper’s front page. RELATED STORIES Xi’s latest message to North Korea’s Kim hints at cooling ties North Korea bans more TV and movies. Surprise! They’re Chinese North Korea orders return of workers in China stranded by pandemic Since North Korea and China established diplomatic ties on Oct. 6, 1949, their relationship has often been described as being “as close as lips and teeth.”  However, there have been signals that China, by far North Korea’s largest trading partner, has become more distant towards its northeastern neighbor. In September, Xi, in his first message to Kim in eight months, marking the anniversary of North Korea’s founding, was also less effusive in tone on the friendship between the countries than he had been the previous year. South Korea’s main security agency has raised the possibility of cooler ties between China and North Korea while media has reported that China is hesitant to form a three-way, anti-West alliance with North Korea and Russia.  North Korea and Russia have moved significantly closer amid widespread suspicion that North Korea has supplied conventional weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine in return for military and economic assistance.  This year, North Korea and Russia the two countries signed a strategic treaty that includes mutual defense elements. China Beijing appears to prioritize a stable regional security environment to address its economic challenges and maintain relationships with Europe and its Asian neighbors. China’s foreign ministry has dismissed any suggestions that relations with North Korea have cooled. While North Korea largely sealed itself off during the COVID-19 pandemic, this year it has been building up its diplomatic ties, apart from those with Russia. A top Vietnamese defense official visited Pyongyang last month and in August, North Korea took steps to patch up ties with old ally Cuba. In April, a North Korean delegation visited Iran.  Edited by Mike Firn.  We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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China’s workers complain of being ‘beasts of burden’

Editor016 mins

There’s a new social media buzzword making the rounds in China that is a shorthand way for workers to complain about being overworked and exploited — “oxen and horses.” The metaphor has gone viral again recently with a video clip of talk show star Xu Zhisheng quipping about his company: “So what, are you gonna milk me now?” While China has long been known for its unforgiving office culture, as the post-lockdown economy flags and jobs get harder to come by, those who are in work find that more and more is being asked of them, leading them to describe themselves as beasts of burden. “Treatment of workers is getting worse and worse during the economic crisis,” a worker in the solar energy industry who gave only the pseudonym Jiang Ling for fear of reprisals told RFA Mandarin by email. “Oxen and horses is a popular buzzword in China … which expresses how badly workers are being treated.” An employee works at a workshop of an engineering equipment manufacturing enterprise, Feb. 29, 2024 in Nanjing, Jiangsu, China. (Yang Bo/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) Long working hours, low pay and no way to stand up for their rights were the most frequently cited complaints by workers who spoke to Radio Free Asia in recent interviews. A white-collar employee with more than 10 years’ experience in the state-owned and private sector, who gave only the nickname Amesis for fear of reprisals, said both sectors are as bad as each other when it comes to wringing the last drops of productivity out of employees. “The worst thing about private companies is the boss’ arrogant attitude towards their employees,” he said. “Private companies will expect you to do overtime if they get a request from another department.” “But in state-owned enterprises, you’re treated like beasts of burden — expected to produce a report within a specified timeframe,” Amesis said. “In those companies, most of the tasks they assign to you are outside of your job description.” ‘No room to say no’ Regardless of the company structure, “requests” from management are non-negotiable. “There’s no room to say no, and no basic rights as an employee,” he said, adding that at least state-owned companies pay overtime, although at the same rate as regular wages. Dong Ming, who has held both white- and blue-collar roles since entering the workplace in 2005, said the hours are pretty long regardless of the type of labor you do. On the shop floor of a listed flooring manufacturer, Dong used to work “8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. or 8.00 p.m. to 8.00 a.m. two weeks on day shift and two weeks on nights,” he said. A 2024 survey by human resources company Zhaopin found that nearly 70% of white-collar and blue-collar workers put in more than eight hours a day, with scant difference between them. And 34% of respondents described themselves as beasts of burden, or “oxen and horses.” Employees check electronic components at the workshop of Jiangxi Yingteli Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., June 8, 2023 in Jincheng, Shanxi, China. (Wei Liang/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) Zhang Chao, a former national marketing director of a Chinese brewery, said there is little choice for workers faced with ever-increasing demands on their time. “In some low-end jobs, it’s pretty easy to recruit people, especially in the current environment,” Zhang told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview. “A lot of people competing on the bottom end of the ladder for basic jobs are unemployed.” In the private company where Zhang used to work, there was no such thing as overtime pay, and pressure to put in long hours is greater the further you are down the pecking order. But there are also oxen and horses among senior management, he said. “It depends on what kind of division of management labor you have with your boss,” he said. “If he trusts you, he will leave a lot of stuff to you — that makes you kind of a senior beast of burden.” ‘Wolf culture’ Amesis agreed, saying managers are no more able to resist the demands of their employer than workers further down the company hierarchy. “The managers report directly to the boss, and they’re the ones who get scolded if there are problems,” he said.  For Dong, who has put in shifts in restaurants, coal mines, factories and opticians, most workplaces don’t treat workers like human beings. Even at the opticians, where the job was somewhat easier, his boss used his lowly background to belittle and criticize him. “He told me that people like me with a poor background are incompetent and would never achieve anything,” Dong said. “He looked down on poor people, and saw them as narrow-minded and ignorant of everything, like fine dining.” An employee works on the production line at a workshop of wig, June 4, 2024 in Xuchang, Henan, China. (Kan Li/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images) The 12-hours shifts at the flooring factory left him exhausted at the time, but he didn’t see himself as exploited until later. “I was a little self-critical that I probably wasn’t up to it,” he said. The predatory attitude of employers towards those they hire has been dubbed “wolf culture” in the Chinese workplace. “Wolf culture basically means that everyone has to work together as a team, work overtime, and put up with things being tough,” Zhang said. “A team is only allowed to speak with one voice.” Anyone who steps out of line, even to raise a minor objection, is seen as the problem, even if the repercussions don’t come immediately. Bias toward companies This means that few Chinese employees are willing to put their neck on the line. “Even if you open your mouth and your manager politely refuses, if you go back a second time, the outcome may not be very good for you,” Zhang said. “Sometimes the manager will even start to target you.” And when that happens, there is little redress outside the workplace….

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Cambodian anti-Vietnamese sentiment will stalk Hun Manet beyond trade zone spat

Editor013 mins

After months of disquiet, Prime Minister Hun Manet announced on Sept. 20 that Cambodia would be withdrawing from the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area (CLV-DTA), a major investment pact.  Sophal Ear, a U.S.-based analyst, described the move as “almost Brexit-like” – a nice sound bite, but far from the case. Cambodia hasn’t left ASEAN, nor withdrawn from important regional bodies like the Mekong River Commission.  A report from February claimed that Vietnam had invested in 45 projects in Cambodia, worth around $1.7 billion, through the scheme since its inception in 2004. Yet, much of this investment likely would have happened bilaterally without the CLV framework.  In fact, a 2017 study showed that the majority of the program’s benefits went to Vietnam. Chhengpor Aun, an analyst, summarized it well: Cambodia’s leadership concluded that the CLV-DTA carried “higher political risks domestically than transnational economic and diplomatic gains it promised to deliver.” Granted, Hanoi won’t be pleased with Cambodia’s decision, especially given the ongoing controversy over Phnom Penh’s decision to progress with the Funan Techo Canal despite Vietnam’s concerns. The China-backed megaproject could have a major ecological impact on southern Vietnam and would reduce Cambodia’s reliance on Vietnamese ports.  Hanoi will be wary about the narrative that Cambodia’s exit from the CLV-DTA now opens the door for more Chinese investment, at the expense of Vietnamese influence.  However, the communist parties of Laos and Vietnam understand that authoritarian governments sometimes need to placate domestic dissent, even at the cost of international investment.  In 2019, Hanoi canceled a special economic zone (SEZ) law that would have granted Chinese companies greater access to northern Vietnam, following public outrage.  Dogged by history with Hanoi  It is likely that both Vientiane and Hanoi were briefed by Cambodia about the move beforehand. Hun Manet said that he informed both capitals that the decision was made “to disarm the opposition and maintain peace and solidarity.” The bigger question is what this means for Cambodian domestic politics.  Sources within the government say that the intensity of the anti-CLV reaction caught the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) by surprise.  Following last year’s leadership transition — when Hun Sen stepped down as prime minister after 38 years in power and appointed his eldest son as his replacement — the CPP hoped that it would be less vulnerable to anti-Vietnam rhetoric.  Hun Sen was perennially dogged by allegations of being a Vietnam lackey, given his history as the head ofHanoi-installed Cambodian government in the 1980s. Few things stir the Khmer as much as claims that Vietnam is encroaching on Cambodian territory. Cambodian civil servants hold photographs of Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father during a groundbreaking ceremony of China-funded Funan Techo canal, Aug. 5, 2024. (Heng Sinith/AP) Anti-Vietnamese sentiment dates back several centuries, when Cambodia was carved up by Vietnam and Siam.  Under French colonial rule, the Vietnamese were perceived as having privileged status over the Khmers. Pogroms against ethnic Vietnamese took place during the 1970s, and the Khmer Rouge, a genocidal regime, exterminated much of the Vietnamese diaspora.  Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge general, marched alongside Vietnamese troops in 1979 to help overthrow that regime. The Vietnamese soldiers stayed for a decade, and in 1985, Hanoi helped install Hun Sen as prime minister.  RELATED STORIES Cambodia pulls out of regional economic deal amid criticism EXPLAINED: Why is Cambodia threatening arrests over a 3-nation economic zone? Cambodia’s Funan Techo canal exposes cracks in Vietnam ties Will Cambodia’s Funan Techo canal be a success? Exploiting a weak spot Despite Hun Sen’s dominance, anti-Vietnamese nationalism remained his weak spot, exploited by opposition parties since the 1980s. The now-dissolved Cambodia National Rescue Party found it easy to brand Hun Sen a lackey to the youn, a derogatory term for the Vietnamese. It was hoped that such narratives would fade when Hun Manet took power. His rise to power was supposed to symbolize not only a generational shift in the CPP but also a generational change in culture, a new politics that no longer framed everything by the events of 1979.  Yet, the return of anti-Vietnam sentiment in the form of the anti-CLV protests suggests that some things remain unchanged. Worse, the anti-CLV protests coincided with the overthrow of Bangladesh’s dictator, which sparked fears of a “color revolution” in Phnom Penh. Former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, left, guides former Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong during a visit to the Peace Palace in Phnom Penh, Feb. 26, 2019. (Heng Sinith/AP) The immediate response of Hun Sen, who still calls the shots, was predictable. The government swiftly moved to suppress dissent. According to the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO), over 100 people have been arrested since late July, and more than 60 charged and imprisoned, for voicing opinions about the CLV-DTA.  Both Hun Sen and Hun Manet labeled the protesters “extremists,” and Phnom Penh’s propagandists stuck to their brief: “We are not losing our land, and we are not losing our sovereignty.”  But clearly, Phnom Penh decided this was not a battle worth fighting.  A more aggressive crackdown would have succeeded, but with foreign governments beginning to take notice – especially as the Cambodia authorities were targeting activists who were agitating against the CLV abroad – the risks outweighed the rewards. One goal of Hun Manet’s leadership is to improve Cambodia’s image internationally after relations with the West had deteriorated since 2017.  Nagging criticism Many Western governments have bought into the notion without evidence that Hun Manet is more of a liberal reformer than his father – someone they no longer need to pinch their nose when doing business with.  Phnom Penh eventually chose the easier route: withdrawing from the CLV-DTA, trusting that most people wouldn’t focus too much on the contradiction—if it didn’t jeopardize sovereignty, why quit?  Hun Sen is a protean politician unconcerned with contradictions.  Attempting to put the matter to bed, Hun Manet emphasized in a September 26 speech that the country was now united, saying, “There’s no…

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Cambodia publicly shames maid deported after criticizing Hun Sen

Editor07 mins

Cambodian authorities have circulated photos of a handcuffed domestic worker who was deported from Malaysia after calling her country’s former leader Hun Sen “despicable.” Nuon Toeun, a 36-year-old domestic worker over the past six years, was arrested Saturday at her employer’s home in the state of Selangor, which surrounds Malaysia’s capital Kuala Lumpur. She was escorted to Cambodia by an embassy official and handed over to Cambodian authorities on Monday. After detaining her in Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar Prison on charges of “incitement,” Cambodian authorities distributed photos of Nuon Toeun in front of the facility, handcuffed and under military escort. Her deportation, arrest and public shaming drew condemnation on Thursday from observers and human rights advocates who slammed the Malaysian government for its complicity in Cambodia’s “transnational repression.” Former Cambodian parliamentarian Mu Sochua, who is now living in exile, called the case an example of how autocratic regimes seek to “silence dissent.” “A Cambodian domestic worker was immediately sent to prison after #Malaysia, complying with @hunsencambodia, deported her,” she said, in a post accompanying the photos of Nuon Toeun in handcuffs on the social media platform X. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, left, stands next to his father Hun Sen, former prime minister during the country’s 70th Independence Day in Phnom Penh, Nov. 9, 2023. (Heng Sinith/AP) Nuon Toeun often used social media to criticize Cambodia’s leadership including Prime Minister Hun Manet and his father Hun Sen, who held the post from 1985 until last year before passing the role to his son and taking a new role as president of the senate.  She also criticized the Cambodian government over handling a variety of social issues. ‘Despicable guy’ A few days before her arrest, Nuon Toeun had posted a video to her Facebook page in response to a comment telling her to “be mindful of being the subject of sin,” in reference to talking negatively about Hun Sen. “If I have sinned because I [have cursed] this despicable guy, I am happy to accept the sin because he has mistreated my people so badly,” she said in the video. “I am not a politician, but I am a political observer and expressing rage on behalf of the people living inside Cambodia.”  RELATED STORIES Malaysia deports Cambodian worker for calling Hun Sen ‘despicable’ Award-winning Cambodian journalist jailed for ‘incitement’ Australian prison sentence for official’s son strikes chord in Cambodia Asia Human Rights and Labor Advocates Director Phil Robertson slammed the “shameful collaboration” between the two governments in deporting and jailing Nuon Toeun for her comments. “Add yet another case in very long list of transnational repression actions undertaken by #Cambodia gov’t of @Dr_Hunmanet_PM @hunsencambodia,” Robertson wrote. “Hun Sen going after a maid in KL who called him ‘despicable’ & embassy escorts her back!” “What’s truly despicable is #Malaysia‘s involvement in this!” he added. Josef Benedict, a researcher with the Civicus Monitor, a global civil society alliance, expressed alarm that Anwar Ibrahim’s government in Malaysia would facilitate Cambodian efforts to punish dissent. “A clear violation of international law & a new low for this government,” he posted to X on Thursday. Nuon Toeun had been a supporter of the Cambodian National Rescue Party, or CNRP, which had been the main opposition party in Cambodia prior to its supreme court declaring the party illegal and dissolving it in 2017. Attempts by RFA to contact Cambodian government spokesman Pen Bona for comment on Nuon Toeun’s case went unanswered Friday. Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian rights group Licadho said that critics living abroad shouldn’t be deported for exercising their right to freedom of expression and warned that the case would only invite additional international scrutiny of the Cambodian and Malaysian governments. “The arrest drew a lot of criticism of Malaysian authorities for working with Cambodia to deport the maid,” he told RFA Khmer. “The international community has raised the issue of freedom of expression, which the Malaysian government should respect.” Am Sam Ath said that his organization is working to meet with Nuon Toeun at Prey Sar, who does not currently have legal representation. Translated by Samean Yun. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Thousands flee Myanmar airstrikes after rebel ambush

Editor06 mins

About 10,000 villagers in Myanmar’s Sagaing region are fleeing junta airstrikes launched after forces loyal to a shadow pro-democracy government inflicted unusually heavy casualties on a military column, residents told Radio Free Asia. The heartland central region of Sagaing has seen some of the worst violence over the past year with pro-democracy guerrillas, largely from the majority Burman community, hounding junta forces who often respond with heavy artillery and airstrikes. On Wednesday, air force planes bombed Maung Htaung village in Budalin township, about 110 kilometers (68 miles) northwest of the city of Mandalay, destroying buildings and wounding at least two people, a resident said. “A bomb fell on the school and another was dropped near a Buddhist religious building. A third bomb hit a clinic,” said the resident who declined to be identified for fear of reprisals. “A man and a woman were wounded.” Residents of about 10 villages in the area were too frightened to stay in their homes and some took shelter in woods by their fields while others headed to the nearest monasteries and towns, villagers told RFA, estimating that about 10,000 people were displaced, many in urgent need of food. The airstrikes came after anti-junta People’s Defense Force fighters ambushed an infantry column on patrol from a camp in Ku Taw village on Monday.  Nearly half the soldiers in the patrol were killed and most of the rest were captured, according to a spokesman for one of the groups involved in the ambush called the Student Armed Force. “There are 32 dead junta soldiers and 42 were captured,” the spokesman, identified as Maj. Okkar, told RFA.  “The detainees are being held in accordance with the Geneva Convention, in accordance with agreement of the National Unity Government affiliates and local PDFs.”  Four PDF members were wounded in the battle, he added.  RFA has not been able to independently verify the account and calls to the junta’s Sagaing region spokesperson, Nyunt Win Aung, went unanswered by the time of publication. Democracy supporters of the government ousted in the 2021 coup set up the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, to oppose military rule and organize the PDFs operating around the country.  The guerrillas released photographs of what they said were captured junta soldiers. The U.N. refugee agency estimated that 3.1 million people have been displaced internally by fighting in Myanmar since the military overthrew a civilian government in early 2021. Nearly 70,000 have fled to neighboring countries, the UNHCR said in a report published on Thursday. Residents fleeing fighting in Khin-U township, Sagaing region, on March 25, 2024. (Khin-U township Right Information Group) The military has increasingly resorted to airstrikes over recent weeks, in different parts of the country including Sagaing, Shan state in the northeast and Rakhine state in the west, particularly since the junta chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, vowed early last month to recapture areas lost to guerrilla forces. More than 130 people have been killed and more than 70 wounded by airstrikes from Sept. 1 to Sept. 24, across eight states and regions, RFA data shows. RELATED STORIES A new generation in Myanmar risks their lives for change No limits to lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory regime Month of fighting leaves once-bustling Myanmar town eerily quiet  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Residents of Myanmar’s Lashio flee relentless airstrikes

Editor05 mins

Hundreds of civilians in the rebel-controlled northeastern Myanmar town of Lashio are fleeing in the face of relentless junta air attacks as the military presses on with an offensive aimed at retaking territory captured by insurgent forces, residents said on Wednesday. Insurgents captured Lashio on Aug. 3, one of the most significant victories for a three-party guerrilla alliance that has made major advances since late last year against the junta that seized power in early 2021. But the junta now appears determined to recapture the town on a major trade link to China and is unleashing its air power to do so, residents say. “The planes normally come when night falls,” one Lashio resident who declined to be identified for security reasons told Radio Free Asia. “We worry about where they’re going to bomb, my home or others .. we pray no one gets hurt,” said the resident who is aiming to flee to the town of Taunggyi, about 25 kilometers (155 miles) to the south. “It’s happening almost every night so we just can’t stay anymore and have to flee again.”  Lashio had a population of nearly 250,000 but more than 200,000 have fled to Taunggyi, and other towns in Shan state such as Kalaw and Nyaung Shwe, as well as to the main cities of Mandalay and Yangon, residents say. RFA tried to contact Khun Thein Maung, a military council spokesman for Shan state, to ask about the situation in Lashio, but he did not answer phone calls. A damaged vehicle in the town of Lashio on Aug. 25 (RFA) The intensifying conflict in Myanmar’s civil war has displaced more than 3 million civilians, the United Nations says, and there’s no sign of the situation improving. The military has been shifting troops from southern to northern Shan state in a bid to recapture Lashio and other towns it has lost to insurgent forces in The Three Brotherhood Alliance, but at least for now it is mostly relying on its air power, rebel officials and residents say. The fighting comes despite peace efforts by neighboring China, which has brokered several short-lived ceasefires over the past year, and a vow by the main rebel force in Lashio, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, or MNDAA, to cease fighting and end its cooperation with the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, set up by pro-democracy politicians. China has major investments in Myanmar including oil and natural gas pipelines running from Rakhine state on the Indian Ocean coast through Shan state to its border. Lashio residents said that the telecommunications and internet access in the town had been cut since Tuesday, adding to a growing sense of panic. “I can no longer communicate with home and the planes are bombing every day, so I’m worried,” said another city resident, who also declined to be identified. Residents said it appeared that the MNDAA had cut communication links but RFA was not able to confirm that or to contact an MNDAA spokesperson for comment. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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North Korea swaps soybean-based doenjang paste with wheat-based imitation

Editor07 mins

Read a version of this story in Korean  North Korean authorities are providing the public with “foul tasting” wheat paste as a substitute for doenjang, the fermented bean paste that is a staple in Korean cuisine, residents told Radio Free Asia.  Something magic happens in the traditional making of soy sauce: when the salty liquid is siphoned off the top, the urn it’s been fermenting in still holds a treasure. It is the pungent paste of legend, doenjang – a key ingredient in Korean soups, stews, sauces and even snack foods. Doenjang is the subject of South Korean rap songs and tops ice cream dishes served at the Biden White House.  The paste has been made on the Korean peninsula for millenia. But North Korea, which has been suffering from food shortages, recently boosted wheat production at the expense of other crops. Packaged gochujang and bara gochujang sold at Pyongyang department stores and markets. Gochujang is a spicy red chili paste made with meju, fermented blocks of mashed boiled soybeans, a precursor to doenjang and soy sauce. (RFA) The result has been an excess of wheat and a shortage of soybeans, leading to the unlikely production of doenjang using the former. But people find it disgusting, a resident of the eastern province of South Hamgyong told RFA Korean on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Starting this year, wheat-based doenjang is being supplied to residents in the city of Sinpo instead of soybean-based doenjang,” she said, adding that most residents are saying they can’t eat it. “They say it is because the white color of the paste is unsightly and the taste is foul compared to the soybean-based doenjang which was previously supplied.” She said the wheat paste’s quality is poor because the production process leaves part of the wheat husk in the final product. “The eater ends up chewing on the husk and smelling a strange, sourish odor.”   She said that even after a deadly famine in the 1990s, when the government had almost no food to give to the people, supplies of doenjang never completely ran out. But now, the situation is so dire that the government is trying to pass off an inferior substitute. Because it is a fermented food, doenjang has a very long shelf life. An urn can be buried in the ground and used for several years. So in 2000, North Korea upscaled production, putting doenjang factories in every province and major city.  But there’s a shortage of soybeans these days, the resident said. “The doenjang you could get in the grocery stores up until last year was not 100% soybeans. It was mixed with corn,” she said. But even the corn-soybean mix doenjang was better than the wheat substitute, she said. Wheat-based doenjang is unpalatable, a resident of the northeastern city of Rason told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely.  A lemon bar ice cream with fresh berries, mint ginger snap cookie crumble and doenjang caramel dessert dish is displayed during a media preview, Monday, April 24, 2023, in advance of Wednesday’s State Dinner with South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) She said that the municipal government did give out soybean-based doenjang to residents, but only as a gift on the four major North Korean holidays–New Year’s Day, the two birth anniversaries of leader Kim Jong Un’s late father and grandfather, who were his predecessors, on Feb. 16 and April 15, and the founding day of the ruling Korean Workers’ Party on Oct. 10. Additionally on holidays, residents of Rason “sometimes got small amounts of soy sauce,” she said. While the government-supplied doenjang was made with soybeans, it wasn’t as good as homemade varieties, “it was still good enough to eat.” “Many families, who cannot make their own doenjang or buy it homemade from others, had relied on soybean doenjang supplied by grocery stores,” she said. The wheat doenjang is a poor substitute, they say.   “Many people say it is too salty and stinks because it is not stored properly,” she said. “They wish that they could just get doenjang made from soybeans.” Translated by Claire S. Lee. Edited by Eugene Whong. We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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Myanmar guerrillas attack junta military headquarters in Mandalay

Editor06 mins

Pro-democracy insurgents battling Myanmar’s junta fired rockets at the military headquarters in the city of Mandalay, the group said on Monday, the latest in a series of strikes at the heart of the military’s command structure. There was no immediate confirmation from the junta of the attack on the Central Military Headquarters in Myanmar’s second-biggest city early on Sunday, which an activist group called Brave Warriors for Myanmar (BMW) said its members carried out with 107 mm rockets. “Two of the rockets hit a building where junta troops who are about to attack in northern Shan state are staying,” a member of the group who declined to be identified for safety reasons told Radio Free Asia. He said some troops were believed to have been wounded in the attack but the extent of casualties and damage were being investigated. Those who carried out the attack escaped, he said. RFA tried to contact the junta spokesman for Mandalay region, Thein Htay, by telephone to ask about the reported attack but he did not answer calls. The headquarters is in the heart of Mandalay, on the site of what used to be the walled palace of Myanmar’s kings who were deposed by British colonialists in the 19th century. The place was largely destroyed during World War II but the site is of symbolic importance for the nation. A resident of the area, which is known as Aungmyaethazan township, said he heard loud explosions early on Sunday. “I heard three or four blasts at around 2.28 a.m. on Sunday morning, they were quite loud, from a big weapon, I think,” the resident, who declined to be identified for safety reasons, told RFA. Myanmar’s military has been facing setbacks in fighting in several parts of the country over the past year, at the hands of its old ethnic minority insurgent enemies and new pro-democracy People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, set up by activists largely from the majority Burman community, who took up arms after the generals overthrew an elected government in early 2021. Despite the setbacks, which have included the loss of a regional command headquarters in Shan state, northeast of Mandalay, and of a naval base in Rakhine state in the west, the military remains in control of major cities and can unleash devastating strikes with its air force. PDF fighters have launched several rocket attacks on military bases and junta leaders in the capital Naypyidaw as well as in the main city of Yangon. The junta has condemned what it calls “terrorist” attacks and arrested several groups of plotters. The BWM member said his group and an allied faction called the Shadow Mandalay Group had attacked the Mandalay base twice before, on Dec. 21, 2023, and on Sept. 3 this year. The BWM also helped plan a rocket attack on an air base in Naypyidaw in July, the group members said. PDF insurgents and their ethnic minority force allies have also captured a growing number of towns in the Mandalay region including Mogoke, Thabeikkyin, Singu and Tagaung. Anti-junta forces are also threatening Pyin Oo Lwin, a hill town 64 kilometers (40 miles) east of Mandalay that is home to the military’s Defense Services Academy. RELATED STORIES A new generation in Myanmar risks their lives for change No limits to lawlessness of Myanmar’s predatory regime Month of fighting leaves once-bustling Myanmar town eerily quiet  Edited by Mike Firn We are : Investigative Journalism Reportika Investigative Reports Daily Reports Interviews Surveys Reportika

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A Myanmar revolutionary battles an old enemy with new allies

Editor014 mins

This story is the fourth in a five-part series exploring the war in Myanmar and what might come if the fighting stops. Read this story in Burmese. Tall, square-jawed and with a facial expression set to stern, Saw Kaw looks every bit the rebel commander that he is. But as he sits in a secret camp of Myawaddy township in Kayin (Karen) state, strumming his guitar and singing songs he learned in church, it’s easy to wonder what shape the 37-year-old’s life might have taken had circumstances allowed. As it was, Saw Kaw was born in a small village in eastern Myanmar and into one of the longest running insurgencies in the world. Almost ever since Burma gained independence from Great Britain in 1948, ethnic Karen forces from small villages in the mountainous areas near Thailand have battled successive military juntas for greater autonomy. Among them was Saw Kaw’s father, who was a member of the Karen National Union, or KNU. When Saw Kaw was seven, soldiers raided his village in search of his father, who wasn’t there at the time. Saw Kaw said they found and beat his uncles and an elderly grandfather instead, sending his mother, seven months pregnant at the time, fleeing into the surrounding jungle. An illustration shows seven-year-old Saw Kaw watching soldiers — who were looking for his father, a resistance fighter — torturing his relatives. (Rebel Pepper/RFA) For safety reasons, he said the family has remained fractured ever since, constantly on guard that the military or their supporters could use one to get to another. “Hello, Mom, how are you,” Saw Kaw sings, playing one of his favorite songs. “I miss you so much. Please pardon me as I cannot come back to you.” A long struggle The Karen are among the largest minority groups in Myanmar, which is thought to have more than 130 different ethnicities with various relationships with the Burman majority that has held the reins of power in the country. The complicated ethnic make-up is seen as a barrier to lasting peace. In-roads other armies have made against junta forces to the north and west don’t necessarily indicate the country can emerge from its complicated civil war whole. But the KNU has committed itself to the idea of a federation in which it and other groups have a high degree of authority over their own affairs but participate in a larger, national government. They are allied with the National Unity Government, a group of exiled former government officials helping to fund resistance movements and build a lasting peace should the military collapse. Cobra Column commander Saw Kaw stands on Asia Road, near the site of what was formerly the Myanmar junta’s Battalion 356, July 12, 2024. (Chan Aung/RFA) As a military commander, Saw Kaw doesn’t have time to weigh all the possible political dynamics. But the force he controls – Cobra Column – is an unusual joint effort of seasoned fighters from ethnic armies and young, largely Burman revolutionaries who no longer wish to be governed by the junta. It is an NUG force, not a KNU one. “I cannot precisely predict when this significant event will conclude, but I firmly believe that this war must come to an end,” he said. “It is not solely an arm revolution; the entire populace is involved.” In the shared tragedy, he hopes a lasting cohesion can be formed. READ MORE IN THIS SERIES A new generation in Myanmar risks their lives for change Love and struggle: A new generation in Myanmar’s civil war For Burmese journalist, an uneasy safety in Thailand A coup, then civil war Many of the Karen are Christian due to a history of missionaries operating in the area during colonial rule, and Saw Kaw learned to play the guitar in his church. Whatever early musical aptitude he demonstrated didn’t much matter. He always knew what his future held – fighting for his people. After attending college in Thailand he returned home to join the Karen National Liberation Army, or KNLA. His life has seen peace, however. In 2015, the KNU and the Myanmar military negotiated a ceasefire in the capital of Naypyidaw. Saw Kaw was part of the delegation. In this Sept. 9, 2015, photo, Myanmar President Thein Sein greets representatives of armed ethnic groups at the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) meeting in Naypyidaw. (Gemunu Amarasinghe/AP) By then, Myanmar’s military leaders began to open the country up to the world after decades of isolation. The agreement fell apart, though, in 2021 when Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing led a coup that pushed out the civilian government of the National League for Democracy, claiming election irregularities that it has yet to prove. Some of the NLD members fled to Lay Kay Kaw, a town established with the help of the Japanese as a refuge for Karen displaced in the region’s long-simmering conflict. The city, which was known as a “peace town” symbolizing the new detente between the military and rebel forces, became instead a locus where People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) sought training from people like Saw Kaw. “With deep sympathy, I don’t want anyone else to suffer as we have,” he said in an interview from his camp, not far from the front line where rebels are trying to hold off a large collection of government troops. “If people in other places experienced what’s happening in this country, they wouldn’t be able to endure it. It’s truly unbearable.” Cobra Column commander Saw Kaw near the front line in Myawaddy district, Karen state, May 8, 2023. (Courtesy of Saw Kaw) Hunting former NLD members, the military attacked Lay Kay Kaw in December 2021, triggering a return of hostilities with the KNU and its armed units. Fighting escalated throughout 2022 and 2023, spreading to towns and villages in the Myawaddy, Kawkareik and Kyainseikgyi districts. Initially, Saw Kaw said the fledgling PDF units tried to hold off the onslaught with old Tumi guns, flintlock rifles used against the British more than…

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Indian border fence cutting off crucial supply route to Myanmar’s Sagaing region

Editor08 mins

Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese India is erecting a fence along its border with Myanmar, which residents of Myanmar’s Sagaing region say is cutting off trade routes and driving up the price of goods.  More than 1.6 million people have been displaced by conflict in Myanmar since February 2021, when the military seized power in a coup d’etat, according to the United Nations, with more than 50% of them – an estimated 821,000 people – from the Sagaing region. Many of the displaced there rely on cross-border trade from India for goods and medicine. Trade at the Tamu-Moreh border gate connecting India’s Manipur state to Sagaing was suspended in 2021 but area residents have continued to exchange goods through informal routes. India began construction of its border fence in Manipur state in June 2022 amid an influx of refugees from Myanmar, and Indian Union Government Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah said last week that around 30 km (20 miles) of the barrier have since been completed. Meanwhile, the junta has blocked roads leading to the checkpoint on the Myanmar side, and ethnic Chin commentator R. Lakher told RFA Burmese that India’s fence will make it difficult for residents in Sagaing to obtain goods and medicine from across the border. “The price of commodities has already significantly increased [because of the project],” he said. “This border area is relying on India for all its basic commodities and medical treatments. The local populace will surely suffer a lot of difficulties if the border fencing is completed.” A resident of Sagaing region who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA that those who need to cross the border are already being forced to do so at unfenced areas, where they must pay higher fees for transportation. “If the border fencing is completed … residents who have close relatives on both sides will face various difficulties,” he said. RELATED STORIES Closed borders with India cause food, fuel shortages in western Myanmar Food shortages reported in rebel-controlled areas of Myanmar’s Chin state Jailed Myanmar activists in India in danger of deportation: rights groups India shares a 1,643-km (1,020-mile) border with Myanmar, 398 km (250 miles) of which are located along Manipur state. The Indian government has earmarked US$3.7 billion to build the border fence, which will also cover 520 km (325 miles) in Arunachal Pradesh, 215 km (135 miles) in Nagaland and 510 km (320 miles) in Mizoram. Another resident of Sagaing told RFA that the border fence will impact people on both sides. “Not only the people of Myanmar, but also the people of India will suffer difficulties because people from both sides already have a long history of crossing the border,” he said. Rihkhawdar- Zokhawthar border gate bridge connecting Rihkhawdar town in Chin state and Mizoram state in India on February 10, 2024. (RFA) Salai Dokhar, the co-founder of aid agency India for Myanmar, said that the Manipur government is urgently erecting the fence because Myanmar’s anti-junta forces have gained control over its border areas. “As Myanmar rebel forces are in control of border areas close to India, the Indian government will have to deal with them, which I believe it does not want to do,” he said. Invitation to rebel forces While the Indian government conducts bilateral negotiations with Myanmar’s junta, it made overtures last week to the country’s rebel forces for the first time since the coup, according to a report by Reuters news agency. The report said that India extended invitations to Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, as well as to the China National Front, the Kachin Independence Army and the Arakan Army to attend a seminar by the government-funded Indian Council of World Affairs. A source with knowledge of the issue told RFA that Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar is leading the preparation for the event, the theme of which will be “Constitutionalism and Federalism.” The source said that only the Chin National Front had confirmed their registration to attend the seminar, while the other three groups have yet to respond. Observers welcomed the move, which they called “pragmatic,” given the junta’s weakening grip on power in Myanmar’s border regions. “All the Indian borders [with Myanmar] are close to areas under the control of these [anti-junta] forces, and this shows that India has adopted more pragmatic strategies suitable for the situation on the ground,” said an ethnic affairs analyst, who also declined to be named due to fear of reprisal. Attempts by RFA to reach the Indian Embassy in Yangon and the Myanmar Embassy in New Delhi about the border fence went unanswered Friday, as did attempts to contact junta spokesperson Major General Zaw Min Tun for comment on India’s invitation to anti-junta groups. Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar told his junta counterpart Than Swe in New Delhi on July 26 that his government is open to engaging with all stakeholders in resolving Myanmar’s crisis. Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster. 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