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Bangladesh bank freezes accounts belonging to U.S.-sanctioned Myanmar banks

Bangladesh’s Sonali Bank has frozen the accounts of two Myanmar state-owned banks due to U.S. sanctions against them, its chief executive officer said Wednesday. Confirmation of the action came after the United States Embassy in Dhaka sent a letter to the government requesting that Bangladesh comply with such sanctions, which was then forwarded to the Bangladeshi state-owned bank, according to documents seen by BenarNews. But Md. Afzal Karim, Sonali Bank’s chief executive officer, and managing director, said action had already been taken against the accounts of Myanma Foreign Trade Bank and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank. He did not say precisely when. “We have already frozen the accounts of the two banks due to the OFAC sanction,” Karim told BenarNews on Wednesday, referring to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an agency under the U.S. Treasury Department that enforces sanctions. Karim said the two Myanmar banks had total deposits of US$1.1 million in Sonali Bank. “This money cannot be transacted [on],” he said. “For more than a month, the accounts of the two banks [in Sonali Bank] are not being used for any transactions.” Karim said that after Sonali Bank had frozen the accounts, the Myanmar junta had requested Bangladesh to make the accounts available for a transaction. “We were requested by Myanmar to open the account. However, it will not be possible to open until the sanction is lifted,” Karim said. He said he was relieved that Sonali Bank did not have many funds in accounts in the two sanctioned Myanmar banks. “We don’t have much money there. One bank has 17,000 euros, another has [200,000] dollars,” he said. “They have more money with us.” In June, Washington announced its sanctions against three entities, including the two banks controlled by the Burmese military, which overthrew an elected government in February 2021. The U.S. Treasury said the two banks “facilitate much of the foreign currency exchange within Burma and enable transactions between the military regime and foreign markets, including for the purchase and import of arms and related materiel.” Since the military coup, the Burmese junta has cracked down on mass protests, killed nearly 4,000 people, and arrested thousands more, according to human rights groups. The United Nations said more than 1.8 million people had been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar because of violence since the coup. The United States, in a letter to the Bangladesh foreign ministry dated Aug. 3, reminded it of the sanctions on the two Myanmar banks and urged Dhaka to “take appropriate action.” The ministry then sent a letter to the Sonali Bank, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank of Bangladesh informing them about the U.S. embassy letter. “On June 21, we imposed sanctions on three entities in response to atrocities and other abuses that the regime committed against the people of Burma,” according to an excerpt from the embassy’s letter. “These designations reinforced our objectives of denying the regime access to foreign currency and further preventing the regime from purchasing arms that could be used to commit atrocities and other abuses.” BenarNews contacted the U.S. embassy in Dhaka for details but did not immediately hear back. Bangladesh-Myanmar trade is small. The South Asian country mainly exports potatoes, biscuits, and plastic products to Myanmar, and imports wood, frozen fish, ginger, and onions. In fiscal year 2022, Bangladesh imported goods worth around $128.5 million from Myanmar, its next-door neighbor, and exported items worth $3.9 million to Myanmar. The U.S. sanction on the two Myanmar banks that have accounts in Sonali Bank should not be a financial burden on Bangladesh, said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank. “Since Bangladesh does not have a large amount of business with Myanmar, there will not be a significant bottleneck due to this reason,” he told BenarNews. “There is no reason to worry about it.” BenarNews is an Ijreportika-affiliated news service.

China pumps up narrative of happy Uyghurs in Xinjiang among Pakistanis

Editor1 year ago010 mins

“Chinese Rahat Abdullah” has become a regular on Pakistani social media channels, YouTube and Facebook, wearing Atlas silk dresses, Pakistani clothing, or traditional Chinese outfits. Regarded as a Chinese internet star, she also sings in Urdu on local radio and cooks Uyghur dishes on Pakistani TV programs – though she refers to the dishes as Chinese food. Her sudden rise in popularity has raised questions among Uyghurs living in Pakistan about Beijing’s efforts to use local Uyghurs as pro-Chinese Communist Party propaganda tools to downplay the Chinese government’s horrific treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang. China has come under harsh international criticism for its severe rights abuses against the predominantly Muslim Uyghurs, including forced labor. The U.S. government and several Western parliaments have declared that the abuses amount to genocide or crimes against humanity. Abdullah is believed to hail from the city of Ghulja – or Yining in Chinese – in Xinjiang. Information on Pakistani social media platforms says she earned a law degree in China and arrived in Pakistan in 2010. She has been known to teach Chinese at various universities in Pakistan and is portrayed in the videos as a messenger of friendship between China and the predominantly Muslim Pakistan. But Abdullah doesn’t mix with local Uyghurs, according to Omar Uyghur, the founder of a trust that provides assistance to Uyghur refugees in Pakistan. “She doesn’t come to the weddings or funerals,” he said. “Uyghurs don’t meet with her either. She spreads propaganda in the Pakistani media on how Uyghurs are living happily.” At a time when Uyghurs in Pakistan cannot freely return to Xinjiang and some Uyghur women married to Pakistanis are being detained by Chinese authorities in the region, Abdullah was able to visit Ghulja last June. During her visit, she participated in a wedding and recorded Uyghur songs and dances there, later posting them on Facebook and other social media platforms to give her Pakistani followers the impression that Uyghurs live happy lives. In June 2023, Rahat Abdullah visited Ghulja in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, where she recorded Uyghur songs and dances to give her Pakistani followers the impression that Uyghurs live happy lives. Credit: Screenshot from Rahat Abdullah Facebook Television host and actress Until recently, Abdullah had about 10 social media followers, but her follower count has climbed to more than 40,000, largely due to her appearances on Pakistani TV. She recently became a host of the “Ni Hao” program – Mandarin for “Hello” – on Pakistan’s Kay2 TV, a channel that has received investment from China. She also has portrayed a Pakistani woman married to a Chinese man in a TV series that highlights the friendship between China and Pakistan. On June 4, Abdullah sang a Pakistani folk song on an Eid al-Adha TV program in Islamabad while wearing a traditional Uyghur Atlas dress and introducing herself as “Chinese Rahat Abdullah.” Photos on her social media accounts indicate that she has had connections with the Chinese Embassy in Pakistan and other Chinese organizations there since 2017. Abdullah, who is relatively unfamiliar to Uyghurs but is gaining popularity through local broadcasts in Pakistan, did not respond to Radio Free Asia’s requests for comment via messages sent to her social media accounts. Other efforts with Pakistanis Abdullah’s new notoriety comes as China and Pakistan have strengthened ties across various sectors in recent years, and as Beijing has invited some influential Pakistanis on trips to Xinjiang. On July 18, Ma Xingrui, Communist Party Secretary of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and Xinjiang government chairman Erkin Tuniyaz welcomed a delegation of Pakistani scholars in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital. During the meeting, Ma told his guests that they have created a free and happy living environment for the people of Xinjiang. He also criticized Western countries that have followed the lead of the United States in condemning China for human rights violations. Alleged atrocities against the Uyghurs have included detention in “re-education” camps and prisons, torture, sexual assaults and forced labor. Qibla Ayaz, chairman of Pakistan’s Council of Islamic Ideology and leader of the visiting delegation, affirmed the participants’ unwavering support for China and expressed admiration for the progress in Xinjiang’s development and the peaceful lives of its Muslim population. The participants also expressed hopes for creating closer connections with Xinjiang through the Pakistan-China Economic Corridor, a 3,000-kilometer Chinese infrastructure network project under the Belt and Road Initiative to secure and reduce travel time for China’s Middle East energy imports. Pakistani student Muhammad Usman Asad holds the flag of East Turkestan, Uyghurs’ preferred name for Xinjiang, in front of a billboard announcing a Dragon Boat Festival event at the National University of Sciences & Technology in Islamabad, Pakistan, June 10, 2022. Credit: Mumahhad Usman Asad An ineffective measure Some Pakistanis have expressed growing concern that their government has remained silent about the abuses in Xinjiang. Pakistani scholar Muhammad Usman Asad, who has spoken out on behalf of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, said when China invites Pakistani religious scholars to tour Xinjiang, news about their visits always appears on Chinese social media, but not in the Pakistani media. “These so-called religious scholars are not the kind of scholars that the Muslim masses in Pakistan would listen to,” said Asad, who staged a solitary sit-in in Islamabad in June 2022 to protest China’s repressive policies against Uyghurs. “They are only pro-government and government-sponsored Islamist organizations, so their false propaganda about China will have little effect.” Nonetheless, China is extending its attempts to sanitize its image, Asad said, following heavy criticism from Western nations about the government’s brutal treatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang. “Just as China’s campaign to improve its image through the religious sphere has been ineffective, its campaign in Pakistan through English-speaking Chinese or Pakistani internet stars has been equally ineffective,” he said. Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matthew Reed.

Foreign diplomats in China treated to tour of Xinjiang and ‘happy’ Uyghurs

Editor1 year ago010 mins

A Chinese government-sponsored visit to Xinjiang by 25 Beijing-based ambassadors and other diplomats from developing countries has come under fire by human rights activists for pushing an official narrative that the mostly Muslim Uyghurs in the far-western region are thriving, despite the reality of severe repression. The delegation, which included diplomats from Dominica, Myanmar, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Nicaragua and Mexico, visited the western autonomous region from July 31 to Aug. 3. Xinhua news agency and CGTN, China’s state-run international TV broadcaster, covered the diplomats as they visited Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi, the cities of Aksu and Kashgar, and other significant locales to observe the region’s “economic and social progress” and affirm that “the local population in Xinjiang is living a happy life.” And the Chinese government’s efforts appear to have paid off. “During our time in Xinjiang, we had open conversations with the local people and observed that they lead content and happy lives,” Martin Charles, the ambassador to China from the small Caribbean island nation of Dominica, told Xinhua. “We didn’t come across any instances of forced labor, and there were no indications of human rights violations,” he said. China is relying on government-organized visits for foreign officials and influential people from various professions to promote an alternative vision of Uyghur life in Xinjiang amid growing condemnation by Western nations over its maltreatment of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities. The U.S. government and several Western parliaments have declared that the ongoing human rights abuses, including arbitrary detentions, torture, forced sterilizations of Uyghur women, and forced labor, amount to genocide and crimes against humanity. China has also denounced a report issued nearly a year ago by the U.N. high commissioner for human rights that documented cases of severe rights abuses in Xinjiang. The report said that the abuses could constitute international crimes, in particular crimes against humanity. Though the groups invited to tour the region are diverse, they have one thing in common: They all support China’s “Xinjiang policy.” ‘Telling the story of Xinjiang well’ In early February, another visiting delegation of Beijing-based ambassadors and diplomats from African countries, including Senegal, Benin, Mali, Rwanda, Madagascar, Malawi, Uganda, Lesotho and Chad, visited Xinjiang and expressed support for China’s policies there. All the countries maintain strong economic ties with China because many have benefited from Chinese-built and financed infrastructure projects under the Belt and Road Initiative. They also support China within the United Nations. Members of the delegation of diplomats who visited in July also expressed their rejection of a previous proposal by the U.N.’s top human rights body to hold debate on alleged rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The proposal by mostly Western nations, including the United States, was voted down in October 2022. Six days before the diplomats visited Xinjiang, the Chinese government organized a seminar in Urumqi to convey its narrative of the region. During discussions about “telling the story of Xinjiang well,” participants emphasized reaching overseas audiences by transmitting the narrative in languages other than Mandarin Chinese. Hector Dorbecker, counselor for economic-commercial and financial affairs at the Embassy of Mexico in Beijing, tries to play dutar, a long-necked two-stringed lute, in Jiayi village of Xinhe county, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 2, 2023. Credit: Zhao Chenjie/Xinhua via Getty Images In late December 2018, a delegation of diplomats from Kazakhstan, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, and 12 other countries, all stationed in Beijing, visited Xinjiang on an agenda organized by the Chinese government, which presented “re-education” camps as voluntary vocational training centers. The Chinese government has also sponsored foreign journalists on trips to Xinjiang. Chinese officials arranged for a group of journalists from 10 foreign media outlets to tour major cities in Xinjiang in April 2021 to defend its policies in the region and dispel reports of human rights abuses. In August 2019, Chinese Communist Party officials hosted another group of foreign journalists, most of whom worked for state broadcasters from countries along the Silk Road economic belt, putting them up in fancy hotels while they toured Xinjiang and lecturing them on China’s measures to stop terrorism and separatism in the region. The officials took the journalists to some mosques still left standing though authorities had closed, demolished, or turned into museums many others in Xinjiang, to a “re-education” camp they said was a vocational training center, and to shows where young Uyghurs danced and sang. rights activists weigh in Henryk Szadziewski, director of research at the Uyghur Human Rights Project, said the arranged visits are “a consistent tactic employed by the Chinese government to conceal their wrongdoings” during which they use others to amplify their messages. “Whether it is a western vlogger doing a travel blog or diplomats from countries that are friendly, or that rely on China in terms of its economy, or [face] threats or pressure, they put out this message that Xinjiang is now safe and prosperous as a region,” he said. While China invites people from nations sympathetic to its perspective to visit Xinjiang, it has rejected requests by the U.S. and human rights groups that independent investigators be able to visit the region. Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, said all visits to Xinjiang by foreign diplomats were designed by China to cover up rights abuses. “If everything is fine, why not let in independent international investigators, particularly given the mountain of evidence of some of the most serious crimes under international law?” she asked. “So, it’s not clear why some people got to go and others don’t unless Beijing has something to hide,” she said. Sayragul Sauytbay, an ethnic Kazakh who testified about the abuse she witnessed while detained in a “re-education” camp in Xinjiang, cautioned visiting diplomats against ignoring China’s rights abuses in the region and becoming accomplices to them. “They know and can see China is lying, but they are turning a blind eye,” she said. “These are the countries that rely on China, but for them, this is a rare opportunity….

Junta airstrike kills 4 civilians in Myanmar’s Sagaing region

Editor1 year ago03 mins

Four civilians, including an eight-month-old child, were killed and at least 10 injured when a junta jet bombed a township in Myanmar’s Sagaing region on Friday morning, residents told RFA. The jet bombed a monastery in Sagaing township’s Ta Laing village, where displaced people were sheltering, according to a local who didn’t want to be named for fear of reprisals. “At around four in the morning, the jet hovered and dropped a bomb as a junta column entered Ta Laing village, hitting the monastery gate and causing casualties,” said the local. “Junta troops raided the village in the early morning and civilians were also arrested but there was no fighting.” The local said around 80 troops entered the village after the airstrike and detained around 20 villagers, who were still being held as of Friday afternoon local time. A local People’s Defense Force member, who requested anonymity, told RFA that troops fired rocket-propelled grenades at the monastery when they withdrew on Friday afternoon. “On the way out of Ta Laing village, the junta troops opened fire with two shots with shoulder-fired weapons toward the monastery,” he said, adding that a battle with his anti-junta militia was almost certain to happen. Locals said more than 6,000 civilians from villages in Sagaing township fled their homes ahead of the junta raid. Calls to the junta’s spokesperson for Sagaing region, Saw Naing, went unanswered. Junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said on July 31 that the junta is staking out territory and declaring martial law in parts of the country in order to restore peace and stability. The junta has extended the state of emergency for another six months, further pushing back plans to hold national elections to replace the military regime that has run Myanmar since a February 2021 coup.. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Military reshuffling aims to keep Myanmar’s ruling junta in place for the long term

Editor1 year ago09 mins

A recent reshuffling of top military personnel by the leader of Myanmar’s junta is part of an effort to gain control of the entire governing apparatus and remain in power for years to come, analysts and observers said. Among the top generals reassigned on Aug. 3 were the heads of the defense and home affairs ministries – the first changes since Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power from the elected civilian-led government in a February 2021 coup. The two ministries are responsible for tackling armed anti-junta resistance fighters across the country. Former Transport and Communications Minister Gen. Tin Aung San was appointed as defense minister, making him a member of the National Defense and Security Council, and former Defense Minister Gen. Mya Tun Oo was made transport and communications minister. Both will continue serving as deputy prime ministers. Lt. Gen. Yar Pyae, the former Union Government Office 1 minister, replaced Lt. Gen. Soe Htut as head of the Home Affairs Ministry. Yar Pyae held on to his position on the State Administration Council – the junta’s governing body – and his roles of national security adviser to Min Aung Hlaing and leader of the junta’s peace negotiation team. The move came days after Min Aung Hlaing extended emergency rule in Myanmar for another six months on July 31, thereby delaying the date by which elections must be held according to the country’s constitution. The junta previously pledged to hold elections in August. It also occurred as Myanmar, already hit hard by economic sanctions, faces intense international criticism over the military’s attacks on civilian communities and execution of detained combatants in areas that are hotbeds of resistance to the regime. An annual report released publicly on Tuesday by the U.N.’s Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar cited strong evidence that the military and its affiliate militias have committed “increasingly frequent and brazen war crimes.” New assignments at lower levels A leader of the nonviolent anti-junta civil disobedience movement, or CDM, said Min Aung Hlaing reassigned generals he trusts to important ministries to prepare for what he may face during the next state of emergency period. “The Defense Ministry is just like a correspondence office under the commander-in-chief,” the person said. “That’s why he transferred Gen. Mya Tun Oo, who is one of his major players, to the Ministry of Transport and Communications, which he will heavily use in the future to tackle the issues of airplanes and cyber communication.” Min Aung Hlaing appointed capable Yar Pyae as home affairs minister in place of Soe Htut, who is in poor health, to strengthen the operations of the State Administration Council over the next six months, he added. The CDM leader, who served in the military for 21 years and held the rank of a captain, moved to the civilian administration where he worked for nearly a decade until he was promoted to a director position. Following the 2021 coup, he left his job and joined other professionals who walked off the job to peacefully protest against the regime. Reassignments have also taken place among lower-ranking military officers. From January to the end of June, the junta transferred 40 lieutenant colonels, majors and captains to civil ministries to work as chief executive officers, or deputy and assistant directors, according to the junta’s weekly national reports. Among them were one lieutenant colonel, nine majors and 30 captains sent to work at the Myanmar Economic Bank, Election Commission, Union Civil Service Board, ministries of construction, industry and commerce, sports and youth affairs, hotels and tourism, and the Yangon and Naypyidaw City Development Committees. The largest number of military officers were transferred to the Myanmar Economic Bank with five majors as managers and 16 captains as assistant managers. The transfers indicate that the junta is trying to control the operation of civil departments as well, said former Captain Kaung Thu Win, a member of the CDM. “The junta aims to replace its people in senior positions in the civil departments such as directors to be able to control the head of the departments so that they will follow its instructions more faithfully,” he told RFA. “It transferred junior officers to the civil departments so that they can provide the military with the necessary information inside each department.” RFA could not reach junta spokesman Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the personnel changes. ‘It’s called militarization’ Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Thayninga Institute of Strategic Studies, said the new appointments would strengthen the military administration. “The bureaucratic mechanism makes the administration of a country run smoothly and easily,” he said. “In order for that mechanism including national security projects to operate, it is important for all the people involved to be able to work effectively. That’s why we need really capable people who can focus on their tasks.” More reliable replacements were made because many of the current government departments have experienced security breaches, he added. The appointment of military officers to both top and middle-level civilian positions is the junta’s attempt to dominate the entire government apparatus, political and military analyst Than Soe Naing said. “It’s called militarization,” he said. “It is a military’s attempt to dominate and control all departments.” Given the country’s current situation with anti-junta People’s Defense Forces, led by the shadow National Unity Government, and ethnic armed groups fighting junta forces, it is important for the military regime to have reliable people to back it, Than Soe Naing said. “They only work with their service members who they can trust, so that they feel safer,” he said. Translated by Myo Min Aung for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

Rohingya boat sinks off Myanmar’s Rakhine state, 45 missing

Editor2 years ago03 mins

A boat carrying Rohingya people, reportedly heading for Malaysia, sank in the Bay of Bengal near Rakhine state’s capital city Sittwe, a village administrator told RFA Tuesday. He said all but 10 of the 55 people on board are missing. Eight men were found alive on a beach near the city’s Basara village on Monday night, hours after the vessel went down, along with the bodies of two women, said village administrator Soe Myint. He told RFA that authorities are still searching for the missing people. “The boat sank after taking on water due to heavy rains and high waves in the sea,” he said. “The boat reappeared yesterday. Two dead bodies were found and eight people were recovered [alive]. The rest of the missing are likely to die. Now we are looking for the bodies on the beach.” He said 10 women and 35 men were unaccounted for, adding that eight people survived by holding onto plastic containers when the boat sank. Residents said the survivors are being cared for in Basara village. The junta-run Rakhine Daily News reported August 7 that the Rohingya had left Rathedaung township heading to Malaysia by boat. More than 740,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine following a military crackdown on the ethnic group that started more than five years ago, and now live in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Of the more than 600,000 that remained in Rakhine, around 125,000 are living in displaced people’s camps in the state. Many Rohingya living in Rakhine state often leave by boat across the Bay of Bengal to Malaysia due to economic hardships and discrimination. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.

Cambodia’s king signs royal decree to nominate Hun Manet as PM

Editor2 years ago08 mins

Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihamoni on Monday issued a royal decree to appoint Hun Sen’s eldest son Hun Manet as the country’s prime minister, ensuring that the transfer of power from father to son will occur later this month. According to the decree, Hun Manet will assume the office on Aug. 22, when the newly elected National Assembly adopts the new cabinet. It will be the completion of years of preparation for a transfer of power from father to son, as the 71-year-old Hun Sen, who has ruled the country since 1985, prepares to step aside. Hun Sen did however say that he would continue to have a role in government for the next 10 years. Hun Manet’s royal appointment comes after the country’s electoral body on Saturday announced last month’s election results, which gave Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party, or CPP, 120 of the assembly’s 125 seats. The election has been criticized by the international community for being neither free nor fair, as the main opposition party was disqualified from participating. Analysts and opposition party officials have criticized Hun Manet’s appointment as prime minister, saying that dynastic rule has no place in a democracy. Finland-based political analyst Kim Sok told RFA’s Khmer Service that Hun Manet lacks the acumen to solve Cambodia’s national problems. “Hun Manet has only one policy: to follow his father. And his father, although the CPP has written hundreds of good policies, has implemented only one point: to persecute the people,” said Kim Sok. “[Hun Sen] has destroyed the nation, selling the nation to maintain power. Therefore the chaos that is the burden of the social crisis left by Hun Sen as a father will continue under Hun Manet and will be even more serious.” Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen and his son Hun Manet attend election campaign rallies in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, July 1, 2023 and July 21, 2023 respectively. Credit: Cindy Liu/Reuters Cambodian legal scholar Vorn Chanlouth told RFA that under the current legal process, there are no obstacles standing in Hun Manet’s way because the CPP has effectively prepared for the transfer of power. But there is still reason to doubt the legitimacy of it. “The problem we have here is the transparency of PM candidate,” he said. “In this 7th legislative mandate election process, many political parties lack transparency, as they did not present their prime ministerial candidates to the public. For example, in the CPP, Hun Sen said he was the candidate, but when his party won, he passed the post to his son. This is not transparent.” Chanlouth said that prime ministerial candidate should have come forward to explain to the public his party’s policies, but Hun Manet said nothing other than that he would follow in his father’s footsteps. “We don’t know specifically or exactly what they are going to do to solve the national problems we face today,” he said. ‘Not over yet’ Hun Sen, meanwhile, has assured the public that “It is not over yet” in an announcement on his Telegram social media channel. He said that in addition to being the father of the prime minister, he will continue in other positions until 2033. Hun Sen is currently the president of the CPP, and he repeated his intention to become the president of the senate, a position currently held by CPP vice president Say Chhum. Oum Sam An, a former lawmaker for the former main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, said that Hun Sen’s intention to assume future positions in government shows that he is “afraid of his own shadow,” meaning that he is afraid to face the law after he resigns as the leader of the country. “The leadership has not changed,” he said. “Most of them are the children of members of the senior government, so the new bloods are the old blood taking on the jobs [of their parents].” Kim Sok said that Hun Sen’s rule would be remembered for its destruction of natural resources, arrest of dissenting citizens, and other rights violations. “Because the Cambodian people, the international community, and the International Court of Justice, cannot forget the story that the general public cannot forget about Mr. Hun Sen as the leader of a coup that robbed power and led a society through state terrorism,” said Kim Sok. “He used the name of the state to abuse the people and destroy them.” CPP spokesman Sok Ey San, however, denied that Hun Sen was responsible for killings or injustices on the Cambodian people in the past. He said those who dare to criticize without evidence will be held accountable before the law. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Edited by Eugene Whong.

Plenty of blame to go around in Vietnam’s COVID repatriation flight bribery scandal

Editor2 years ago014 mins

Following a two-week trial, a Hanoi court last month convicted 54 defendants, including senior diplomats, for collecting over $7.4 billion in bribes to arrange government flights home for Vietnamese citizens stranded overseas during COVID pandemic lockdowns. The COVID-19 repatriation flight scandal is not Vietnam’s largest corruption case in monetary terms, but it involved 25 officials from five different ministries, and the country’s tightly controlled state media were given relatively free rein to cover a case that captured public attention and affected many citizens. Nearly 200,000 Vietnamese are reported to have returned on some 1,000 Vietnamese government-organized charter flights from 62 countries during the 2020-21 peak of the pandemic. The scandal toppled three Vietnamese ambassadors and other diplomats for skimming from repatriation funds. In the July 28 sentencing of 54 people, four officials received life sentences, while 45 officials and businesspeople were jailed for between16 months and 20 years. Prosecutors had sought the death penalty for one official, but the courts held back. Of defendants, 21 were charged with receiving bribes, 24 for giving bribes, and the remainder for abuse of power, brokering bribes, or fraud. The 24 businessmen and women spoke in court about Vietnam’s “envelope culture”. Prosecutors described a “well-oiled” system put in place for companies that sought government contracts, with amounts correlated to the number of flights and repatriates. Tarnished diplomats There are six takeaways from the case that prosecutors said showed “extremely dangerous levels of corruption” that “betrayed the efforts of the whole country.” First, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) is now tarnished in the eyes of the public. Thirteen of the 54 convicts – almost a quarter – were from the MFA, which prides itself on being a very small and elite institution. Vietnam’s diplomats are usually highly regarded. Yet the case displayed tawdry corruption, historically more common in other ministries. In a time of crisis, these diplomats preyed on common overseas workers whose remittances play a key role in supporting the home economy, and they did so in a crisis when people were desperate. The media were filled with stories of people who missed the deaths of parents and other cases of loss that resonated with the public. Four people in the embassy in Malaysia alone received 10 billion dong ($423,000) in bribes. Defendants [front row, standing] appear in court for the repatriation flight trial in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 11, 2023. Credit: Vietnam News Agency/AFP The scandal brought down a deputy foreign minister, To Anh Dung, who was found guilty of accepting 21.5 billion dong ($908,000), as well as ambassadors to Japan, Malaysia, and Angola, and the consul general in Osaka. In addition, the head of the consular affairs office, Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, received a life sentence for receiving 25 billion ($1.06 million). She refused to admit that they were bribes, but rather “thank you gifts” from companies that she took “out of respect.” Repayment brings clemency Second, the Supreme Court determined that repayment of three-fourths of the pilfered funds would make defendants eligible for a degree of clemency. For example, prosecutors had sought the death penalty for a secretary of a deputy minister of health, but upon repayment of the full 42 billion dong ($1.8 million), the court handed him a life sentence, saying “There is no need to remove from society.” While it’s important for the government to recoup the proceeds of crime and ensure that people do not benefit from corruption, the ruling also creates a sense that justice can be bought. Local media raised the question of whether filling state coffers was more important than punishing people who extorted bribes from citizens during the pandemic. Third, only three senior officials of Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security were found guilty, a figure that looks inexplicably small given the ministry’s reach. MPS investigators were focused on Vu Anh Tuan, the former head of the immigration management department, and seemed keen to close ranks and redirect the investigations outward. Vietnamese nationals wearing protective suits are seen aboard a repatriation flight from Singapore to Vietnam, Aug. 7, 2020. Credit: Mai Nguyen/Reuters But one defendant received considerable media scrutiny. Hoang Van Hung was in charge of Department 5 of the MPS Investigation Security Agency, the office that was investigating the businesses that paid the bribes, tipping them off in return for his own illicit payments. Though caught on video receiving a briefcase that prosecutors alleged contained $450,000, the former MPS investigator was defiant, claiming that the attaché held four bottles of wine. He denied meeting anyone under investigation despite significant evidence. Prosecutors noted that given his position, he knew all the steps to take to cover his tracks, including relying on burner phones. His defiance throughout the trial reminded people that the people charged with investigating corruption tend to be tainted by it the most. His sentence was longer than prosecutors had asked for. Health ministry graft Fourth, the trial served up another reminder that corruption is endemic in the Vietnamese Ministry of Health. The secretary of a deputy minister of health, Pham Trung Kien, was caught taking some 253 separate bribes within a year. In addition to this scandal, the ministry was also rocked by the Viet A test kit scandal, and in a separate corruption case in July, a Ho Chi Minh City businessman was accused of selling $3.2 million in non-resistant latex gloves. The investigations into so many senior level ministry officials have had real impacts on the healthcare sector. So scared of being caught up in a corruption investigation, no one was willing to sign off on imports of key medicines, leaving serious shortages in early 2023 and causing the delays of thousands of surgeries. Healthcare workers spray disinfectant on Vietnamese nationals after their repatriation flight from Singapore landed at Can Tho airport, Vietnam, Aug. 7, 2020. Credit: Mai Nguyen/Reuters Fifth, Vietnamese analysts that I spoke to noted that there was a distinct difference in levels of contrition. The older figures who had been in the system for years…

Huge Buddha statue a fig leaf for Myanmar junta atrocities, critics say

Editor2 years ago012 mins

Myanmar’s junta inaugurated a 1,700-ton Buddha statue at a grand ceremony in the capital Tuesday that was secretly mocked by citizens used to the military’s efforts to win respectability through religion. The unveiling of the Maravijaya Buddha to mark the full moon day of Waso is the latest attempt by a military regime in Myanmar to present itself as being aligned with religion in the Buddhist-majority country, despite resorting to violence to enforce their grip on power. Civil servants had “no other choice but to go” to the ceremony, despite Waso being a holiday, said a resident of Naypyidaw who, like several others RFA Burmese contacted for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “What I am sure of is that no civilians who aren’t government employees joined the ceremony,” he said. “Only [junta] employees who were forced to join went there. The military even arranged transportation for them.” Waso, also known as Dhammasetkya Day, commemorates the first sermon Buddha ever delivered, and Myanmar’s latest junta pulled out all the stops. The ordination ceremony in the capital Naypyidaw for the 63-foot-tall Buddha, which sits atop an 18-foot-tall throne, was the most extensive official religious event in the country since the military under Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing seized power two-and-a-half years ago. Pro-junta media have dubbed the 58 billion-kyat (US$27.6 million) carving “the world’s largest marble sitting Buddha statue,” ordered built by the junta chief to “show the international community that Buddhism is flourishing in Myanmar” and to “bring peace to the country and the world.” But residents of the capital were quick to point out the hypocrisy of the regime’s message of harmony when its security forces are responsible for the deaths of 3,861 civilians since the Feb. 1, 2021 coup d’etat. “What we see is that the junta is using a lot of money and manpower in building the statue to make it more famous than previous pagodas,” said another resident. “I have no plans to visit, as it was built by the blood-stained hands of the military dictator.” Other critics of the project have slammed the statue as a vanity project for Min Aung Hlaing, who they say hopes to paint himself as a protector of Buddhism in Myanmar. Rights activist Zaw Yan pointed out that the money used to build the statue was part of Myanmar’s national budget. He questioned why it wasn’t used to feed people who are starving because of the junta’s economic mismanagement or provide aid to the 2 million the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says have been displaced by conflict in the country since the takeover. “This is just the junta’s attempt to appear as if [Min Aung Hlaing] is a holy king in hope of gaining people’s support as a political exit,” he said. ‘Remembered as murderers’ Sai Kyi Zin Soe, a political analyst, told RFA that Min Aung Hlaing likely built the Maravijaya Buddha statue in a bid to whitewash his legacy, ward off danger and prolong his rule. “That’s what [junta chiefs] usually do,” he said. “There have been similar examples of this in the past.” The statue’s ordination was reminiscent of one in February 2002, when the country’s former junta under Senior Gen. Than Shwe held a ceremony to consecrate a 560-ton, 37-foot-tall marble Buddha statue known as the Loka Chantha Abhaya Labha Muni in Yangon. Than Shwe moved Myanmar’s capital from the city to Naypyidaw in 2006 and three years later built the Uppatasanti Pagoda there – its name invoking a Buddhist mantra believed to protect against foreign invasion. In 1986, former junta leader General Ne Win completed the Maha Wizaya Pagoda, whose name means “extraordinary success,” south of the revered Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon. However, few people visit the pagoda these days because of its association with the dictator, whose regime was responsible for killing unarmed students, monks and other civilians in a bloody 1988 coup. Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, center, head of the military council, puts jewelry at point of victory, auspicious ground, during consecration ceremony at the sitting Maravijaya Buddha statue made with marble rock, Sunday, July 23, 2023, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. Credit: Military True News Information Team via AP In addition to the statue’s unveiling on Tuesday, the junta also announced an amnesty that reduced the prison term of the jailed head of the deposed National League for Democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, by six years and that of the country’s ousted president, Win Myint, by four. It also ordered the release of thousands of inmates from prisons around the country. The junta often announces amnesties on Buddhist religious days. “Of course they want to be rulers who are seen to revere Buddhism … but they are remembered as murderers, not as devout religious leaders,” said Kyee Myint, a human rights lawyer. “[Try as they may] their wrongdoings will remain recorded in history.” Waryama, a leader of the Spring Revolution Sangha Network of anti-junta Buddhist monks, likened such acts to “hiding a dead elephant with the skin of a goat,” or attempts of deception. “Generations of tyrants and dictators in our country build these temples and pagodas to cover up their atrocities and killing of the people.,” he said. “[The junta] is using the Buddha’s image to try to continue its rule of the country so that it can inflict more cruelty … In fact, worshiping Buddha statues is just a superficial custom of Buddhism.” Buddhist in name only The statue unveiled on Tuesday, whose name Maravijaya means “the Buddha who overcomes the devil’s interference,” is imbued with Buddhist symbolism. According to the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar), an independent research group, worship of the Maravijaya statue involves the number nine, seen as auspicious by Myanmar’s superstitious military leaders. The combined weight of the statue (1,782 tons) and throne (3,510 tons) is 5,292 tons. When 5,292 is added together until one digit remains (5+2+9+2=18, 1+8=9), the result is nine. The same is…

Family run, since 1985

Editor2 years ago01 mins

Strongman Hun Sen has announced he will transfer power to his eldest son Hun Manet, after nearly four decades ruling Cambodia. Hun Manet, a former military chief and four-star general, is at the forefront of a major generational succession in the ruling party that will also see Interior Minister Sar Kheng and Defence Minister Tea Banh hand over their posts to their sons.

Category: South Asia