• contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Category: South Asia

Border closures, conflict threaten ‘shipadi’ fungus trade in remote northern Myanmar

Editor08 mins

Pandemic-related border closures and travel restrictions under military rule are taking their toll on the trade of “shipadis,” a rare fungus prized in China for its alleged healing properties, according to the ethnic Rawan who hunt it in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state. The shipadi is a species of parasitic Cordyceps fungi whose spores infect caterpillars, causing them to crawl upwards before killing them. After the caterpillar dies, the fruit of the fungus grows out of its head in a bid to further spread its spores. While shipadi grow mainly in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, where they are known as “yartsa gunbu,” the Myanmar variant is found only on the ground, trees, and glaciers of northern Kachin state’s remote Puta-O region, near Myanmar’s borders with India and China. The ethnic Rawan who inhabit the region hunt for the fungus they call “Poe Say Nwe Pin” in May and June each year, when the weather warms and the ice has thawed. The highly-coveted golden-colored shipadi is mostly found on the glaciers of Phonrin Razi, Phangram Razi, and Madwe, and can appear as infrequently as once every four years. Aung Than, a local trader, told RFA Burmese that prior to the pandemic, merchants exported the majority of their shipadi to China, where they could expect healthy profits due to their use in traditional Chinese medicine as a treatment for kidney disease. However, China closed its borders soon after the coronavirus began to spread globally in early 2020, forcing shipadi traders to find a new market for their product. “In the past, when border crossing was easy, they bought shipadi from us,” he said. “But we cannot go there anymore and they can’t come to us either. It’s been more than two years now since I lost the market in China.” Aung Than said that since the pandemic, domestic demand had grown for shipadi, but traders could no longer expect to earn the profits they once had. A shipadi pokes out of the ground in Puta-O township. Credit: RFA Danger from conflict Other Rawan shipadi traders in Kachin state told RFA that the market had been further impacted by fighting between junta troops and ethnic Kachin rebels since the military seized control of Myanmar in a coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Daw Hla, the owner of an herbal store in Puta-O, said she regularly sold to customers from Myanmar’s big cities, including Yangon and Mandalay, prior to the coup. But an increase in clashes between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and the military since the takeover had made it more dangerous to hunt shipadi and ship it out of the region, she said. “I used to send them to Yangon, Naypyidaw and other cities, as well as all over Kachin state. I’d send them as soon as I got the orders,” she said. “The transportation was OK and sales were good in the past. But this year, I don’t have much [shipadi] to sell. There’s little product to be had this year – it’s getting very rare.” Sources told RFA that the KIA had recently seized a military camp in Puta-O’s Tsum Pi Yang village, and that fighting along the main road from Puta-O to the Kachin state capital Myitkyina had become particularly fierce since the anniversary of the coup, making it extremely dangerous to travel in the area. A collection of shibadi gathered in Puta-O township. Credit: RFA A risky journey Residents of Puta-O township form groups of five or six each year to climb the mountains and search for shipadi, and can spend months away from home during the hunt. One resident named Lan Wan Ransan told RFA that hunting shipadi has always been risky, particularly during the rainy season when flash floods are common. Other times, he said, the snow and ice may not have thawed enough, making the trek into the mountains deadly and the search for shipadi nearly impossible. “There are many difficulties along the way,” he said. Normally, a single shipadi could fetch 2,000-3,000 kyats (U.S. $1-1.50), Lan Wan Ransan said, but the price has doubled this year, due to the added danger of the conflict. Most hunters will only find around 50 shipadis this year, he added, calling it a significant decrease from years past. In addition to shipadi, the Rawan also gather herbs in the mountains of Puta-O that are rarely found elsewhere, including the roots of the Khamtauk, Machit, Taushau, and Kyauk Letwar plants, as well as ice ginseng. However, none are as highly-prized as the caterpillar fungus from the glaciers of northern Kachin state, they say. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read More

Four years after Laos’ worst dam catastrophe, survivors still live in limbo

Editor016 mins

Four years after a dam collapse that caused Laos’ worst flooding in decades, survivors who lost everything say they are tired of waiting for the government to provide them with new homes and arable land. On the night of July 23, 2018, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over the collapsed saddle dam D at the Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project in southern Laos. The surging water that started in Champassak province, sweeping away homes and flooding villages downstream in Attapeu province, killed 71 people and displaced 14,440 when it wiped out all or part of 19 villages.  Many of the survivors lost their homes to the rising waters and were put in metal huts in relocation villages that were intended to be temporary. Four years on, a government that is still planning and building hydropower dams at a breakneck pace–even as it struggles with crippling debt, a sinking currency and fuel shortages–has failed to deliver on pledges to house the displaced. “It’s already been four years since the dam collapsed. Things have improved a little bit, but we aren’t receiving rice and cash allowances anymore. We do everything to earn money to buy rice and other necessities, but we’re still struggling,” one survivor told RFA Lao. Each family in his area were compensated with between one and two hectares (2.5-5 acres) of farmland, the source, from Attapeu’s Sanamxay district added. UN experts Friday called on the Lao government to rectify the situation. “It is shameful that four years since homes and livelihoods were washed away, many survivors continue to live in unsanitary temporary shelters, without access to basic services, and are still awaiting the compensation promised to them,” said the 10 experts, comprised of six special rapporteurs and a four-member working group. “While four years have been sufficient to rebuild the dam, survivors have been left unable to rebuild their lives during all this time,” the experts said. “Not only are many still living in entirely unsuitable temporary accommodation, the compensation promised by the Lao Government and the relevant companies is being delayed, reduced or simply not provided at all, leaving the survivors with no prospect for durable solutions,” they said. They said it was disturbing that the survivors and human rights defenders might face retaliation for bringing attention to their issues, which happened in 2019, and they noted that two other dams in the area show similar signs of impending failure as saddle dam D prior to its collapse in 2018. “Action must be taken now to ensure that these massive hydroelectric development programmes do not cause greater harm than they do good,” the experts said. Sanamxay district promised it would build 700 homes for the survivors there by the end of 2020, but to date, less than half of them have been completed. “Many of the survivors who still live in metal shelters have built huts as additional living space on their plots of land, because the metal shelters are too small and hot. They live in those huts as they grow vegetables and cassava,” said the survivor, who like all unnamed sources in this report, requested anonymity for safety reasons. “After four years, we’re still struggling to make ends meet,” a second survivor said. “We’re starting new lives. More than half are still waiting. “Nobody is working on our new homes right now because this time of the year is rice planting season. Almost all the workers have gone home to help on the farm. They also complain about being paid late and receiving less than they expected,” said the second survivor. The deadline for finishing the homes has been continually extended since the May 2020 agreement between Attapeu’s Public Works and Transport Department and the Vanseng Attapeu Construction Company.  Vanseng was to receive $25 million from the PNPC to complete 700 homes by the end of 2020. But only the skeletons of 200 homes had been built by then, and the deadline slipped to 2021. An Attapeu province official told RFA at the time that there were not enough carpenters and masons to meet the original schedule. Vanseng at that time promised to have 496 of the homes finished by the Lao New Year in April, and all 700 by the end of 2021. But by February Vanseng said only 440 would be done by April and that it would miss the anticipated completion date because not enough land had been cleared. At an official ceremony prior to the Lao New Year, only 153 completed homes were presented to survivors. The COVID-19 pandemic created new labor and materials shortages. Officials now anticipate the homes might be ready by the end of 2023 but possibly not until 2025, seven years after the disaster. As of April, only 322 of the promised 700 homes were complete, Souansavanh Viyakheth, minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, announced after visiting the survivors. A third Sanamxay district survivor told RFA that families are angry about the delays. “Most of us are not happy with the way the so-called ‘Reconstruction Programs’ work. Four years have passed and more than half of us are still homeless,” the third survivor said.  “Living in shelters, we often run out of water in the dry season. We have received the first compensation payments for lost vehicles like cars and motorcycles but nothing yet for our other property like homes, cash, gold and jewelry. We gave all the information about these losses to the authorities a long time ago,” the third survivor said. Houses being built for survivors of the 2018 Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy dam disaster are shown in a photo taken in early 2020. Photo: Citizen Journalist. Families still waiting for homes also have to deal with inferior education facilities for their children, a fourth survivor of the flood said. “One school for 500 children? It’s too crowded. Many of these kids who graduate from primary school don’t continue on to secondary school because [that school]…

Read More

Top UN court rejects Myanmar objections in Rohingya genocide trial

Editor08 mins

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected on Friday all of Myanmar’s objections to a case brought against it by Gambia that accuses the Southeast Asian country of genocide against the mainly Muslim Rohingya minority. Myanmar’s military regime had lodged four preliminary objections claiming the Hague-based court does not have jurisdiction and that the West African country of Gambia did not have the standing to bring the case over mass killing and forced expulsions of Rohingya in 2016 and 2017. The ruling delivered at the Peace Palace in the Dutch city of The Hague by ICJ President, Judge Joan E. Donoghue, clears the way for the court to move on to the merits phase of the process and consider the factual evidence against Myanmar, a process that could take years. Donoghue said the court found that all members of the 1948 Genocide Convention can and are obliged act to prevent genocide, and that through its statements before the U.N. General Assembly in 2018 and 2019, Gambia had made clear to Myanmar its intention to bring a case to the ICJ based on the conclusion of a UN fact-finding mission into the allegations of genocide. “Myanmar could not have been unaware of the fact that The Gambia had expressed the view that it would champion an accountability mechanism for the alleged crimes against the Rohingya,” the judge said. The military junta that overthrew Myanmar’s elected government in February 2021 is now embroiled in fighting with prodemocracy paramilitaries across wide swathes of the country, and multiple reports have emerged of troops torturing, raping and killing civilians. In the initial hearing of the case in 2019, Gambia said that “from around October 2016 the Myanmar military and other Myanmar security forces began widespread and systematic ‘clearance operations’ … against the Rohingya group.” “The genocidal acts committed during these operations were intended to destroy the Rohingya as a group, in whole or in part, by the use of mass murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, as well as the systematic destruction by fire of their villages, often with inhabitants locked inside burning houses. From August 2017 onwards, such genocidal acts continued with Myanmar’s resumption of ‘clearance operations’ on a more massive and wider geographical scale.” Thousands died in the raids in August 2017, when the military cleared and burned Rohingya communities in western Myanmar, killing, torturing and raping locals. The violent campaign forced more than 740,000 people to flee to squalid refugee camps in neighboring Bangladesh. That exodus followed a 2016 crackdown that drove out more than 90,000 Rohingya from Rakhine. The Gambia has called on Myanmar to stop persecuting the Rohingya, punish those responsible for the genocide, offer reparations to the victims and provide guarantees that there would be no repeat of the crimes against the Rohingya. The Myanmar junta’s delegation protested at a hearing on Feb. 25 this year, saying the ICJ has no right to hear the case. It lodged four objections, all of which were rejected by the ICJ on Friday. The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations and was established in 1945 to settle disputes in accordance with international law through binding judgments with no right of appeal. The U.S. has also accused Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya. Secretary of State Antony Blinken ruled in March this year that “Burma’s military committed genocide and crimes against humanity with the intent to destroy predominantly Muslim Rohingya in 2017.” The State Department said the military junta continues to oppress the Rohingya, putting 144,000 in internal displacement camps in Rakhine state by the end of last year. A State Department report last month noted that Rohingya also face travel restrictions within the country and the junta has made no effort to bring refugees back from Bangladesh. Myanmar, a country of 54 million people about the size of France, recognizes 135 official ethnic groups, with Burmans accounting for about 68 percent of the population. The Rohingya, whose ethnicity is not recognized by the government, have faced decades of discrimination in Myanmar and are effectively stateless, denied citizenship. Myanmar administrations have refused to call them “Rohingya” and instead use the term “Bengali.” The atrocities against the Rohingya were committed during the tenure of the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who in December 2019 defended the military against allegations of genocide at the ICJ. The Nobel Peace Prize winner and one-time democracy icon now languishes in prison — toppled by the same military in last year’s coup. In February, the National Unity Government (NUG), formed by former Myanmar lawmakers who operate as a shadow government in opposition to the military junta, said they accept the authority of the ICJ to decide if the 2016-17 campaign against Rohingya constituted a genocide, and would withdraw all preliminary objections in the case. “It is hard to predict how long this case could take to reach the final verdict. Most likely it could take several years, even a decade,” said Aung Htoo, a Myanmar human rights lawyer and the principal at the country’s Federal Legal Academy. Written by Paul Eckert.

Read More

Student detainees in Myanmar allegedly beaten, kept in solitary confinement

Editor010 mins

Four students imprisoned for protesting the ruling military junta have been held in solitary confinement and beaten nearly every day by authorities since being transferred to central Myanmar’s Bago region less than two weeks ago, their relatives and sources with knowledge of the situation said Thursday. Min Thu Aung, Banya Oo, Ye Htut Khaung and Zaw Win Htut — all students at Hpa-an University in Hpa-n, Kayin state — were arrested in March and charged with defamation of the state, organizing or helping a group to encourage the overthrow or destruction of the Myanmar military, and having contact with an unlawful organization, in this case an ethnic armed group fighting national forces. They each have been sentenced to 12 to 13 years in prison. The four students were among 60 other political prisoners who were transferred from Hpa-An Prison to Tharrawaddy Prison in Bago region on July 9. On instructions from the warden at Hpa-an Prison, the students were separated from the other prisoners when they arrived at the Bago detention center and placed in solitary confinement, a person close to one of the families told RFA. The four have been beaten and locked up in solitary confinement nearly every day since July 10, the youths’ family members and those familiar with the situation said. “They were not handcuffed when they were first beaten, though their ankles were shackled,” the person told RFA. Human rights violations in prisons, such as the beatings the students have experienced, have gotten worse since the military overthrew the democratically elected government in a February 2020 coup, said a spokesman for the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Thai NGO. “We have heard that political prisoners are being tortured intentionally and unjustly because they are political prisoners, and that they are being tortured in various ways,” he told RFA. According to AAPP’s records, junta authorities have arrested 11,743 civilians for civil disobedience activities, of which 1,344 were sentenced to prison terms, since the coup took place. When they were beaten while sitting without handcuffs, Banya Oo and Ye Htut Khaung tried to fight back, but were struck more forcefully, said the person close to one of the families of the detained students. They were then handcuffed, dragged away and locked in solitary cells. “They were taken out of the cells every morning and were beaten again,” the person said, adding that the guards taunted them, asking if their revolution against the junta had succeeded and telling them to say “We must win,” while continuing the beatings. The source said there were rumors that representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) may visit the detention center to investigate the alleged mistreatment of the students. Prison guards removed the students from solitary confinement on July 18, though they are still suffering from injuries from the daily beatings and have not received medical treatment, he said. Another RFA source, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said all four men had serious injuries, including broken noses and head wounds and that one was beaten until his teeth fell out. RFA could not reach Prisons Department officials in Yangon or military junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment. A statement issued by the ICRC in Myanmar on Monday said authorities must treat prisoners with dignity and humanity and ensure their health and safety. It also said the authorities had suspended ICRC access to prisons since March 2020 to check on detainees and provide humanitarian aid. ‘These actions are crimes’ The torture of prisoners is a serious human rights violation because the students have already suffered from being sentenced to long jail terms, said the father of one of the students, who declined to be named for safety reasons. “The kids have already been given punishments,” he said. “They haven’t broken any law or prison rules [since their arrests]. They didn’t even have any kind of prisoners’ rights and all these beatings are very serious violations of human rights. “We feel that this kind of mistreatment has become more serious after the military coup,” he said. “There’s no rule of law at all. No matter what the law says, people would be arrested and unjustly sentenced by the courts once accusations were made against them.” The students’ parents and relatives from Hpa-an requested permission to visit Tharrawaddy Prison, but prison authorities rejected their requests. Tun Kyi, a senior member of the Former Political Prisoners Society, said prison authorities have a policy of torturing political prisoners. “They are committing the most serious violation of human rights with the intention of subduing political prisoners so that they do not dare to rise up again,” he said. “They have laid out policies in various prisons, and then brutally oppressed and tortured the prisoners, often asking questions like, ‘Are you a revolutionary?’ and ‘Is your revolution making any headway?’ before hitting them.” Hpa-an and Tharrawaddy prisons, along with Yangon’s Insein Prison, are among the worst detention centers of Myanmar’s more than 40 jails, Tun Kyi said. A former prison warden, who did not want to be named out of concern for his safety, said the prison officials who mistreat detainees nowadays are former military officers. A legal expert from Yangon, who did not want to be named for the same reason, said that physical beating of any detainee, including political prisoners, is a crime according to the regulations governing prisons. “If you look at it as a lawyer, these actions are actually crimes because the jail manual states that prison wardens can give only 12 types of punishments,” he said. “No one else has the right to punish the prisoners. Among those 12 types of punishments that he can give, he is not allowed to beat prisoners.” Those who torture political prisoners will be held to account at some point, said the AAPP spokesman, who declined to be named for safety reasons. “Those who personally carry out the torture and all those who order…

Read More

Chinese pressure on UN rights chief prompts US call for release of Xinjiang report

Editor08 mins

The U.S. called on the United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday release a report on conditions in Xinjiang “without delay,” after a report that China was working behind the scenes at the UN to bury the long-delayed document. On Tuesday, Reuters reported from Geneva that a letter authored by China expressing “grave concern” about the Xinjiang report was circulated among diplomatic missions. The note asked countries to sign it to show their support for China’s goal of convincing High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to halt its release, the news agency said. “Despite frequent assurances by the Office of the High Commissioner that the report would be released in short order, it remains unavailable,” said a U.S. State Department in Washington. “We call on the High Commissioner to release the report without delay. And we are highly concerned about any effort by Beijing to suppress the report’s release,” the spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement. Bachelet, who visited Xinjiang in May, informed the Human Rights Council in September 2021 that her office was finalizing its assessment of information on allegations of rights violations. Three months later, a spokesperson said the report would be issued in a matter of weeks, but it was not released. On Wednesday, a spokesperson for UN Human Rights Office said it was still being finalized and that Bachelet had said it would be released before she leaves office ends in August or September. “The report is being finalized and final steps are being undertaken prior to public release,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement to RFA Uyghur. The final steps include “sharing with the concerned Member State for its comments before publishing as per standard practice,” the spokesperson said. “Reports are shared for comments with the concerned Member State. The Office will reflect comments of a factual nature in the final version,” said the statement. The spokesman had no comment on the letter cited in the Reuters report. The letter and any related Chinese pressure campaign at the UN was unsurprising because Beijing is “hypersensitive to criticism,” said Sophie Richardson, China director of New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). “The Chinese government regularly tries to undermine or preempt or reject any criticism,” she told RFA. The letter emerged a month after nearly 50 United Nations member states on Wednesday issued a joint statement criticizing China’s atrocities against Uyghurs and calling on Bachelet to release the Xinjiang report. The UN report would cover a period in which Chinese authorities detained up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in internment camps since 2017, according to numerous investigative reports by researchers and think tanks. Xinjiang’s Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other minorities have reportedly been subjected to severe human rights abuses, torture and forced labor, as well as the eradication of their linguistic, cultural and religious traditions in what the United States and several Western parliaments have called genocide and crimes against humanity. The Campaign for Uyghurs, part of a coalition of 230 organizations who have demanded that Bachelet resign from her post, urged the UN to resist Chinese pressure. “It is not the first time China is trying to drum up support for its genocide, nor will it be the last,” said CFU Executive Director Rushan Abbas. “The question is whether countries will succumb to China’s whims because of economic ties, and if Michelle Bachelet will once again be coaxed into listening to China’s demands,” she added. Bachelet’s China tightly orchestrated Xinjiang visit, about which she has disclosed little, has been criticized as a staged, Potemkin-style tour. In Beijing Wednesday, however, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said the 70-year-old former Chilean president “experienced in person what a real Xinjiang is like: a region that enjoys security and stability and sustained robust development, and its people live a happy and fulfilling life.” He told a news conference that China’s stance enjoyed the support of developing countries. “The calculations of a small number of countries to use Xinjiang to engage in political manipulation, tarnish China’s reputation and contain and suppress China will not succeed,” Wang said. HRW’s Richardson said Bachelet was caught between demands from Uyghurs, rights groups and Western governments for accountability and a disclosure of facts in Xinjiang and Beijing’s pressure to silence its critics. “Whether she goes ahead and how accurate it is will tell us a lot about how seriously she takes her mandate and how willing she is to challenge some of the most powerful members of the U.N. system,” she told RFA.  Written by Paul Eckert.

Read More

Unease downstream despite assurances that leaking Lao Nam Theun 1 is safe

Editor08 mins

People living near a leaking dam in central Laos remained fearful Wednesday, five days after a video of the leak went viral, despite assurances from the government that it is structurally safe and will be fixed in weeks, sources in the country told RFA. Video of the apparent leak at the Nam Theun 1 Dam in the central province of  Bolikhamxay was shared on Facebook on Saturday, a week before the fourth anniversary of the Southeast Asian country’s worst ever dam collapse that killed more than 70 people. Authorities told RFA on Monday that  the video depicted only “seepage” that would have no effect on operations or safety at the hydroelectric dam on a Mekong River tributary. On Wednesday, however, the government put out a statement saying that the Lao Ministry of Energy and Mines had found two small leaks during an inspection last month, and a second inspection on Sunday after the video circulated determined that the leaks were still the same size. “Our department inspected the dam on June 25, 2022 and found two leaks on the right side of the dam. However, the leaks are small and won’t have any impact on the structure of the dam,” Bouathep Malaykham, director of the ministry’s energy industry safety management department, said in the statement. “We immediately asked the dam developer to look for the source of the leaks and stop the leaks as soon as possible,” he said. “The developer is planning to fix the leaks in three weeks and our Ministry of Energy and Mines is closely monitoring the dam every day. Actually, we’re going to inspect the dam again on July 27, 2022,” Malaykham said The 650 MW Nam Theun 1 Dam is part of Laos’ controversial development strategy  to build dozens of hydropower dams on the Mekong River and its tributaries to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia” by exporting power to neighboring countries. Critics question rising debt levels and environmental damage as well as safety. The safety department head acknowledged that footage of the leaks on social media had caused understandable concern. But he rejected comparisons with the July 23, 2018 disaster, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over a collapsed saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy (PNPC) hydropower project following heavy rains. It wiped out all or part of 19 villages, leaving 71 people dead and displacing 14,440 others. Malaykham’s statement reminded residents that the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy dam which collapsed in southern Laos four years ago was a soil dam, while the Nam Theun 1 Dam is a compact concrete dam.  “For those who want to post news and pictures of the dam, please think twice, and make sure your information is correct. If not, it might create some misunderstanding among the public,” he said. But the 2018 disaster is still fresh in the minds of people who live downstream from Nam Theun 1, and they remain terrified even with the explanation, a teacher in the province’s Pakkading district said Wednesday. “The dam is leaking now, and sooner or later the leak is going to get worse and finally the dam is going to break,” the teacher told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons..  “Actually, the water is leaking from a dirt wall, not from the concrete wall, so, it’ll get larger and larger soon,” the teacher added. Another resident of the district told RFA he was not assuaged by government assurances. “History will repeat itself. We experienced the worst dam collapse four years ago, and now this is happening again.” A survivor of the 2018 disaster said the developer has instituted a warning system in the years since it caused what has been described as Laos’ worst flooding in decades. “The Xe Pian-Xe Namnoy Dam developer often issues alerts or warnings to us during the rainy season; but up to now, there has been no drills of an emergency or rescue plan at all,” the survivor told RFA Wednesday. The government recently ordered more inspections on hydroelectric dams, a dam developer in northern Laos’ Oudomxay province told RFA. “We already do inspections. We coordinate with the local authorities and residents about our dam condition,” the developer said. Dams also warn the public and the local authorities prior to releasing water, an employee of a dam developer in southern Laos’ Sekong province told RFA. The Nam Theun 1 hydropower project is 60 percent funded by Phonesack Group, 25 percent by EGAT and 15 percent by Electricite du Laos. When complete, its 650 MW of output will be sold to neighboring Thailand. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the landlocked country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

Hong Kong journalists make YouTube tribute on 3rd anniversary of bloody mob attacks

Editor09 mins

Hong Kong journalists targeted under a citywide crackdown on dissent for their reporting of the Yuen Long mob attacks of 2019 have marked the third anniversary of the attacks with a YouTube documentary. A group of independent journalists including Bao Choy, who was arrested in November 2020 over her investigative documentary for government broadcaster RTHK about the July 21, 2019 mob attacks on train passengers at Yuen Long MTR, published a 14-minute video to YouTube on Tuesday, ahead of Thursday’s anniversary. Bao’s Hong Kong Connection TV documentary titled “7.21 Who Owns the Truth?” showed clips from surveillance cameras at shops in Yuen Long and interviewed people who were identified in the footage. Its airing forced police to admit that they already had a presence in the town, but did nothing to prevent the attacks as baton-wielding men in white T-shirts began to gather in Yuen Long ahead of the bloody attack on passengers and passers-by. “On the third anniversary of the 721 Yuen Long attack, a group of independent journalists have made this special program about the unfinished investigation … summarizing clues collected by civil society over the past few years, and following up with a few who have been persevering in seeking the truth,” the video description reads. “We are not affiliated with any media organization and have no news platform, but we sincerely appreciate the willingness of multiple independent journalists to work together on this production,” it said. “We have made this to professional standards despite the lack of salaries or resources.” Post-crackdown freedoms The video also “pays tribute to the interviewees who dared to comment publicly and on the record,” despite an ongoing crackdown on public criticism of the government under a national security law imposed on the city by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020. “Some of them have been forced to leave [Hong Kong], while others have chosen to stay, but they all want to see the day when the truth is made public,” it said. The HKIJ channel where the video was published had garnered 3,540 subscribers by Wednesday afternoon, and 5,700 likes, with a number of supportive comments from Hongkongers. “You were the victims, but you bravely stood up and remembered the pain. I sincerely thank you and wish you all peace,” one comment read, while another said: “Neither forget nor forgive. Thank you to everyone who stood up.” “Thank you to every citizen who still dares to tell the truth, and every reporter who reports the truth, three years on,” another comment said. Men in white T-shirts with poles are seen in Yuen Long after attacking anti-extradition bill demonstrators at a train station, in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Galileo The video includes interviews with three people who were in Yuen Long MTR three years ago, including Tuen Mun resident “Galileo” who was attacked while trying to rescue journalist Gwyneth Ho, and chef surnamed So who sustained heavy injuries from being beaten with rods, as well as a local businessman who supplied CCTV footage from his premises. “Galileo” and his wife tell the producers they gave high-definition video and detailed witness accounts to police, but that most of the attackers hadn’t been arrested to this day. Choy was arrested and fined for “road traffic violations” relating to vehicle registration searches used in her RTHK film. Thirty-nine minutes elapsed between the first emergency calls to the final arrival of police at the Yuen Long MTR station, where dozens of people were already injured, and many were in need of hospital treatment. At least eight media organizations, including the Hong Kong Journalists Association, the Hong Kong Press Photographers Association and the RTHK staff union expressed “extreme shock and outrage” at Choy’s arrest. Calvin So, a victim of Sunday’s Yuen Long attacks, shows his wounds at a hospital in Hong Kong, China July 22, 2019. Credit: Reuters Book fair censored The anniversary came as the Hong Kong Book Fair, once a vibrant showcase for independent publishers in the city, started displaying prominently a number of new titles about CCP leader Xi Jinping and the history of the ruling party, apparently specially produced for the Hong Kong market. Offerings from CCP-backed publishers were on prominent display at the fair on July 19, including titles expounding the success of the “one country, two systems” model under which Beijing took back control of Hong Kong in 1997. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), which runs the book fair, denied that a higher level of censorship is being implemented at the fair under the national security law, which bans public criticism of the authorities. “We don’t engage in the prior vetting of books, nor will we take action to censor any books,” spokeswoman Clementine Cheung told reporters. “But if someone complains or thinks there is an issue with a book, we have a mechanism for checking on that.” “If there really is a problem with a book, it won’t be up to us to decide that,” she said. While independent publishers have been gradually disappearing from the book fair in Hong Kong, organizers set up a small but independent event titled the “Five Cities Book Fair 2022” in small venues in Taipei, London, Manchester, Vancouver and Toronto, showcasing titles that are now banned in Hong Kong, especially those about the political crackdown and the 2019 protest movement. “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China” is displayed at a booth during the annual book fair in Hong Kong, Wednesday, July 20, 2022. Credit: AP Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

China moves to stave off crisis of confidence in banks amid mortgage strike, freezes

Editor012 mins

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is moving to dampen concerns about a banking crisis amid an ongoing mortgage repayments strike and widespread protests over frozen accounts at rural banks. Several cities in the central province of Henan set up task forces to address the issue of unfinished housing projects, the Global Times newspaper reported, following widespread concerns over the systemic risks posed by mortgage defaulters. Authorities in Henan’s Pingdingshan city were finding ways to kick start unfinished projects, while Gongyi city announced on July 14 that three stalled projects in the city had been “properly resolved,” the paper said. “The accelerated moves by local authorities come as mortgage defaults in some Chinese cities, including those in … Guangdong … Henan and Hunan provinces, have raised concerns at both home and abroad,” the paper said. “Risk management mechanisms are generally deemed strong enough to withstand the risk,” it said of the banking sector. Financial markets commentator Chai Xin said the mortgage repayments strikes stem in part from unfair clauses in the off-plan, or presold, sector of the property market. “Almost all of them contain overlord clauses, which don’t give buyers any legal protection, and allow banks to use your other assets [to secure the mortgage], should the mortgaged property lose value,” Chai told RFA. “This doesn’t really happen anywhere outside China.” Chai said the CCP is very worried that the mortgage repayment strike will have a knock-on effect on public confidence in the banking system. “The suspension of mortgage repayments isn’t going to have a huge impact on the banks’ huge assets,” he said. “But the thing the banks are most worried about right now is wavering public trust,” he said. “If public confidence in the banks is shaken, then they will have a big problem.” Plainclothes security officers stand on the road as people stage a protest at the entrance to a branch of China’s central bank in Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan Province on July 10, 2022. Credit: AP ‘Manageable overall’ Chai said if the mortgage strike ends up prompting bankruptcies among property developers, that could also have a big impact on the banks. To date, 15 banks, including the five biggest banks in China, have issued announcements to the effect that the risks from the mortgage repayments strike are “controllable” or “manageable overall.” The move to reassure the public comes after thousands of people protested outside the Shaanxi branch of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) in the northern city of Xi’an on July 14, calling for an investigation into bank loans to property developers, some of whom have been transferring funds overseas. A manager in the personal loan department of the Shenzhen branch of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), who gave only the surname Li, said some developers have been taking the money needed to finish housing projects out of the country. “The developer will say, we can’t go on, this project can’t be completed, but that unfinished project is itself mortgaged, built with a loan borrowed from the bank,” Li said. “[They might take out a] loan of 400 million yuan, 100 million of which would be used for basic development project, and they keep selling off-plan [before completion],” she said. “[But] many developers have already transferred those funds overseas.” “If the housing developer fails to deliver the building on time, the building will be unfinished,” Li said. “In the loan agreement between the buyer and the bank, if there is a problem with property used as collateral, they can include your existing assets to recover the debt.” “But if this becomes very widespread, the banks won’t be able to withstand it,” she said. Call for patience Meanwhile, a CBIRC official called on depositors at four rural banks in the central province of Henan to “be patient” and wait for compensation. “Police have identified the main facts of the case and discovered … that Henan New Fortune Group manipulated five village banks in Henan and Anhui to illegally absorb public funds through internal and external collusion, use of third-party platforms and fund brokers, tamper with original business data, and cover up illegal behavior,” the official said. “The vast majority of ordinary customers of [these banks] have no knowledge or understanding of the suspected criminal behavior of New Fortune Group, and have not received additional high interest or subsidies … and their capital will be returned in batches,” the official said, adding that regular depositors with savings of less than 50,000 yuan would be refunded first. “This is a heavy workload because there are large numbers of people involved … so please wait patiently for follow-up announcements,” the official said. The official said CBIRC also “supports local governments to more effectively promote guaranteed property handovers by developers in a bid to address the mortgage repayments strike. “Banks should insist on finding out the truth of the situation … and on precise implementation of policy, and actively plan to solve the hard funding gap in a reasonable manner,” the official said in comments reported on the CBIRC official website. Since the protests began over the withdrawals freeze at the Henan rural banks, customers have also reported that their bank cards have been frozen or restricted by other banks in Beijing, Shandong, Hainan and other provinces and cities. One newspaper quoted a depositor in Shaanxi as saying that his ICBC savings card wouldn’t let him withdraw or transfer his money, only deposit it. The Securities Daily quoted several banks as saying that cards are generally restricted because of suspected money-laundering or other illegal activities, amid reports that Chinese banks have stepped up scrutiny of dormant accounts with no activity for three years or more in recent years. People protest outside a branch of the People’s Bank of China in the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou on July 10, 2022. Credit: Anonymous source/AFP Liquidity fears Independent economist He Jiangbing said some dormant accounts are used for criminal activities, something that can happen anywhere…

Read More

Junta, opposition activists hold dueling events to mark Martyrs’ Day in Myanmar

Editor010 mins

Myanmar’s military regime and opposition forces held dueling events Tuesday to mark the country’s 75th Martyrs’ Day, with heavy security deployed in the commercial capital Yangon for an official ceremony as anti-junta activists marched and held protests in several cities and towns. The families of the nine assassinated national leaders honored on the holiday laid wreaths at an official ceremony held by the junta at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon. Noticeably absent from the event were the families of independence hero Gen. Aung San, whose daughter Aung San Suu Kyi was thrown in prison following the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 overthrow of her government, and his elder brother Ba Win. The military closed several of the main roads in the city for the early morning ceremony, which junta chief Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing did not attend. A resident of Yangon told RFA Burmese that the military set up checkpoints throughout the city ahead of the event. “Armed police were placed on pedestrian bridges and there were a lot of junta vehicles patrolling the streets. In addition, there were police and soldiers in front of City Hall, at many intersections and posted at various checkpoints,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There were soldiers and police in plain clothes too … [The authorities] checked everyone who approached the cordoned areas.” The military also tightened security and carried out inspections along various roads in Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay, where the opposition maintains a strong presence. Demonstrators march in Kachin state on Martyrs’ Day, July 19, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Despite the clampdown, people on the streets in many townships, including Yangon, commemorated Martyrs’ Day by honking their car horns and carrying wreaths honoring the nine leaders. Even political prisoners in Yangon’s notorious Insein Prison marked the holiday by writing excerpts of speeches by the nine martyrs on their uniforms. Meanwhile, anti-junta activists staged protests and hung posters denouncing the military regime in the regions of Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway, and Tanintharyi, as well as in Kachin and Kayah states. A monk in Mandalay told RFA that activists held a march on Monday to commemorate Martyrs’ Day in anticipation of tight security in the city for the actual holiday. “We were able to lead a protest column … on the eve of Martyr’s Day,” said the monk, who also declined to be named. “Today, security was tight and we couldn’t undertake any activities … But we held a prayer ceremony this evening.” In Mon state, a member of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group in Thaton township told RFA that a ceremony was held honoring not only the Nine Martyrs, but all who had died in the struggle for democracy. “[They] are also martyrs who deserve to be remembered,” he said. “They fought and sacrificed their lives for the sake of the country and people, for the truth and for justice, so we also must salute them.” Martyrs’ Day activities were also observed in Sagaing region’s Budalin, Chaung-U, Kani, Khin-U, Yinmarbin, Salingyi, Tamu, and Shwebo townships; Magway region’s Pauk, Gangaw, and Tilin townships; Tanintharyi region’s Launglon and Thayetchaung townships; Bago region’s Bago and Letpadan townships; Kachin state’s Hpakant township; and Kayah state’s Phekon township. Vice-Senior Gen. Soe Win (front), vice-chairman of the junta, salutes with officials at the tomb of Myanmar’s independence hero Gen. Aung San during a ceremony to mark the 75th anniversary of his 1947 assassination, at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon, July 19, 2022. Credit: Myanmar Ministry of Information via AP Abandoned goals Nan Lin, a member ofUniversity Students’ Unions Alumni Force in Yangon, told RFA that the junta had abandoned the goals of the Martyrs, so it was not strange that the family members of Aung San and Ba Win did not attend Tuesday’s official ceremony. “The number one thing they wanted was independence and the formation of a federal union, followed by the flourishing of democracy and human rights in our country,” he said. “However, what the military has been doing is totally against the aspirations of the martyred leaders.” On July 19, 1947, nine of Myanmar’s independence leaders were gunned down by members of a rival political group while holding a cabinet meeting in Yangon. The victims were Prime Minister Aung San, Minister of Information Ba Cho, Minister of Industry and Labor Mahn Ba Khaing, Minister of Trade Ba Win, Minister of Education Abdul Razak, and Myanmar’s unofficial Deputy Prime Minister Thakin Mya. The nine played key roles in Myanmar’s independence movement and, following the end of British rule less than six months later, the date of their assassination was designated a national holiday. Speaking to RFA in Yangon on Tuesday, youth protester Myat Min Khant said that Martyrs’ Day is now a day to commemorate all those who have sacrificed their lives for the nation. “There may have been nine martyrs in the past, but presently there are many more than nine,” he said. “There were martyrs in the urban clashes, in the street protests, and in the liberated areas [of Myanmar’s remote border regions]. We must recognize the brave warriors who died in battle [against the junta].” The military seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government last year, claiming voter fraud led to a landslide victory for the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the country’s November 2020 election. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule. According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military has killed at least 2,092 civilians and arrested nearly 15,000 since the takeover, mostly during peaceful anti-junta demonstrations. The group acknowledges that its list is incomplete and says the numbers are likely much higher. Translation by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read More

Interview: Former Trump China adviser Miles Yu wants NATO to go global

Editor09 mins

Historian Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, has called in a recent op-ed article for NATO to create a broader security alliance including the Indo-Pacific region, in a bid to stave off a Chinese invasion of democratic Taiwan. “There is an emerging international alliance, forged in the face of today’s greatest global threat to freedom and democracy,” Yu, who served as senior China policy and planning advisor to then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, wrote in the Taipei Times on July 11, 2022. “That threat comes from the China-led, Beijing-Moscow axis of tyranny and aggression,” the article said. “And the new alliance to counter that axis may be called the North-Atlantic-Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization — NAIPTO.” Yu argued that NATO’s strength would be “augmented” by robust U.S. defense alliances covering Eurasia, as well as the Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific oceans. “Such scale is necessary because NATO nations and major countries in the Indo-Pacific region face the same common threat. Common threats are the foundation for common defense,” Yu said. In a later interview with RFA’s Mandarin Service, Yu said the idea would solve several problems. “The first is to unify the U.S. global alliance system, which [is currently divided into] a European-style alliance that is multilateral, involving the joint defense of more than 30 countries,” Yu said. “In the Asia-Pacific region, the nature of the alliance is bilateral, that is, the United States has bilateral treaties with Japan, South Korea and the Philippines, but there is no mutual defense system between Japan, South Korea and the Philippines,” he said. “My proposal … is to unify the global alliance system of the United States and turn it into a multilateral collective defense treaty,” he said. He said NATO members and countries in the Indo-Pacific are facing a common threat, particularly since the Russian invasion of Ukraine had brought Beijing and Moscow closer together. “China and Russia are basically on the same page,” Yu said. “Both China and Russia are singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to strategic statements and their understanding of the Russian-Ukrainian war.” “They are both in favor of making territorial claims against other countries based on civilization and language.” United States Naval Academy professor Miles Yu, a former China adviser to the Trump administration, poses for a photo during an RFA interview in Livermore, California, Oct. 16, 2021. Credit: RFA Common threat He said “ancestral” and “historical” claims on territory run counter to the current state of the world and internation law, and were effectively illegal. “The CCP and Russia have stood together and have recently acted together militarily,” Yu said, citing recent joint bomber cruises in the Sea of Japan, and joint warship exercises in the East China Sea. “Militarily, these moves are very meaningful; they mean that neighboring countries all face a common threat,” he said. He said European countries could perhaps be persuaded to contribute more funding for such an alliance, now that the EU appears to be following Washington’s lead in regarding China as its No. 1 strategic rival. “The United States cannot continue to keep up military spending on NATO as it did in the past,” Yu said. “This strategic shift shouldn’t require much persuasion for NATO’s European members, as they have a perception of the global threat from China that is more in line with that of the U.S. now.” Asked if that shift in perception would extend to helping defend Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and whose 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life, Yu said Ukraine may have changed thinking in Europe on Taiwan. “The people of Taiwan and the people of the world have learned a lot from recent developments, especially from the war in Ukraine,” Yu said. “What happened in Ukraine was something done by Russia, so, would the CCP do the same thing to Taiwan? Logically, philosophically, they would,” Yu said. “The CCP supports Russian aggression against Ukraine … because it senses that Russia has set a precedent, for which the next step would be Taiwan,” he said. “So European countries are going to have a keener sense of the need to protect Taiwan.” “If everyone unites to deal with the military threat from China and its economic coercive measures, the CCP won’t be so bold,” Yu said, citing China’s economic sanctions against Australia after the country started taking a more critical tone with Beijing. “The CCP got angry and imposed large-scale economic sanctions on Australia, stopped buying its coal, and stopped buying its wine,” Yu said. “But if Australia were to join this alliance, it could take joint action to deal with China’s unreasonable measures.” “The CCP would stand to lose a lot, because this would be collective action, and the likelihood of further outrageous actions would be greatly reduced,” he said. He added: “Many countries in the world, especially those in the Asia-Pacific region, are dependent on China’s economy, but China is also dependent on these countries for energy and markets. This is a two-way street.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

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