• contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Category: South Asia

North Korea makes school uniforms in inter-Korean industrial zone without permission

Editor07 mins

Some North Korean students will show up for school this summer decked out in high-quality uniforms made in a South Korean-built factory that has been shuttered in the wake of missile tests by Pyongyang. Sources in the country told RFA that the company that supplies uniforms to schools in North Hwanghae province began making summer uniforms in the nearby Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint-Korean manufacturing zone that was once a showcase of North-South cooperation. The complex briefly closed in 2013 during a period of high tension between Seoul and Pyongyang.  In 2016 South Korea halted operations in the complex in response to a North Korean missile test, and operations remain suspended. Though the uniforms made in Kaesong are superior, unilaterally starting up the South Korean factories could spark friction with Seoul, sources said. “Last week, an official of the provincial Clothing Industry Management Bureau and I returned to North Hwanghae province with summer school uniforms that were able to pass product inspection. We brought them from a garment factory at the Kaesong Industrial Complex,” an official of the province, which lies just across the demilitarized zone from South Korea, told RFA’s Korean Service Tuesday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. The bureau is responsible for making enough summer uniforms by the end of the month, after which they will be given to the province’s elementary, middle and high schools as gifts from the country’s leader Kim Jong Un, the source said. “That’s why the bureau has been operating sewing and cutting machines in Kaesong since March, with permission from the Central Committee. They mobilized residents from Kaesong who previously worked at the industrial complex,” he said. “Mobilization” is North Korean code for forced labor, in stark contrast to when the industrial complex was in operation and workers, at least in theory, earned several times more than their counterparts outside the complex. North Korean use of the complex without South Korean permission might be frowned upon below the 38th parallel, but North Hwanghae is located just south of Pyongyang and is a strategic region for propaganda purposes. The students need to look their best. “The Central Committee took special measures to use the facilities in the industrial complex… are partly because the other clothes factories in North Hwanghae are so old. But the main reason is because the Highest Dignity often visits the province to offer his guidance,” the official said, referring to Kim Jong Un’s well-documented visits to factories, farms, schools and areas hit by natural disasters, so he can be portrayed as a benevolent leader. “It is an urgent priority to present the school uniforms to the students in a timely manner,” the source said. Truck drivers are shipping imported fabric from Sinuiju, on the border with China, to Kaesong, for use in the factories, a source north of Pyongyang in South Pyongan province told RFA. “I heard from a driver who brought the imported fabrics in a freight car that they are still producing clothes in the Kaesong Industrial Complex in the factories that were operated by South Korean companies,” he said, on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “They are making winter clothes for officials.” Since the complex closed in 2016, some of the equipment has been repurposed by companies as far away as North Pyongan province in the northwest, a source there told RFA. “Prior to the pandemic, several of the currency earning clothing factories here moved the equipment from the garment factories in Kaesong without permission,” he said on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “Though clothing processing was suspended due to coronavirus lockdown measures, the industrial complex machinery here has been used to make school bags and uniforms for students in the province,” the third source said. “Although there are homegrown garment production units… in Sinuiju, they are not as good as what was in the industrial complex. So they used it to make the school uniforms faster and with better quality.” South Korea’s Ministry of Unification Thursday announced that it detected vehicle movement inside the Kaesong Industrial Complex, and that it was monitoring the area to determine if North Korea was operating facilities in the complex without permission. Translated by Leejin J. Chung. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

U.S.-China defense chiefs to meet at Asia security summit

Editor07 mins

U.S.-China tensions will once again take center stage at a major regional security forum in Singapore this weekend, with the two countries’ defense chiefs meeting in person for the first time. Both U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe have arrived at the Shangri-La Dialogue security summit, hosted by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think tank. Austin and Wei are delivering keynote speeches to highlight the defense policies of their respective countries but eyes are on their bilateral meeting, reportedly held on Friday afternoon. This is the first time the two defense chiefs are meeting in person, though in April they had a phone conversation to discuss “bilateral relations, regional security issues and Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” according to a Pentagon statement. Since then, bilateral security ties between the U.S. and China have had a few setbacks amid Beijing’s growing assertiveness and changing military postures in the region.  China has signed a security deal with the Solomon Islands and is setting up a naval facility in Cambodia. Both developments have raised concerns among the U.S. and its allies. Chinese flyovers and naval patrols around Taiwan, in the East and South China Sea, are also posing challenges to the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. Washington has condemned what it calls “China’s provocations,” while Beijing has insisted it is the U.S. that threatens peace and security in the region.  The bilateral meeting in Singapore – “held at the Chinese side’s request,” according to the Department of Defense (DOD) – is not expected to deliver any major breakthroughs. However, it is expected to open a clearer and more regular communication channel between the two sides. “In general, such dialogues remain rare in a bilateral relationship marked by scant human connections,” said James Crabtree, Executive Director, IISS-Asia. “This lack of communication would be cause for worry in any future regional crisis,” he said. Preventing miscalculations Austin would like to keep lines of communication open between the U.S. military and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to prevent miscalculations, according to the DOD website. The defense secretary will speak on Saturday, clarifying the next steps for the U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy with emphasis on the new approach of “integrated deterrence,” where the U.S. aims to “harmonize both traditional and emerging defense capabilities and priorities, along with non-military tools of power, with partners and allies in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific.” China’s Defense Minister Wei Fenghe will speak on Sunday on China’s vision for regional order, in which “he will discuss China’s policies, ideas and concrete actions in practicing true multilateralism, safeguarding regional peace and stability, and promoting the development of a community of a shared future for mankind,” according to Chinese state media. Austin and Wei will also hold several other bilateral and multilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit. The U.S. defense secretary is scheduled to meet with ASEAN defense officials as well as South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup. He is also expected to take part in trilateral talks with Lee and their Japanese counterpart Nobuo Kishi.  The Chinese defense minister, meanwhile, is expected to meet the Japanese defense minister to discuss North Korea after having co-chaired the Inaugural Singapore-China Defense Ministers’ Dialogue on Thursday afternoon. Japanese media said Kishi also wanted to register with Wei Fenghe “Japan’s concerns about China’s growing maritime assertiveness, and to urge Beijing to exercise restraint.” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida answers questions before leaving for Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue. CREDIT: AFP On Friday Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is giving a keynote address to kick off Shangri-La Dialogue 2022. The address will outline his vision and plan for a free and open Indo-Pacific region. Kishida is the first Japanese prime minister to attend the summit in eight years, the last visit being by Shinzo Abe. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to deliver a special address to the summit via video link on Saturday to talk about the situation in his country.  The IISS-hosted Shangri-La Dialogue has gone into its 19th year after a two-year suspension due to the COVID pandemic. It is taking place on June 10-12 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Singapore, this year with the participation of some 500 delegates and press, according to the organizers.

Read More

Philippines protests new Chinese ‘swarming’ in South China Sea

Editor06 mins

The Philippines said Thursday it had filed a new diplomatic protest against Beijing over the alleged return of a massive Chinese fleet operating “illegally” around Whitsun Reef, within Manila’s exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea.  The Department of Foreign Affairs made the announcement hours after U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met in Manila with President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as well as Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. during a visit that she said was part of “preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific.” The department said it “protested the return of over 100 Chinese vessels illegally operating in the waters in and around Julian Felipe Reef on 04 April 2022, barely a year after the same swarming incident was protested by the Philippine government.” In its statement, the department did not say when the diplomatic protest was filed nor if the ships remained at the reef. The department and the Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to BenarNews requests for comment late Thursday. Internationally known as Whitsun Reef, Julian Felipe Reef is described as “a low-tide elevation within the territorial sea of relevant high tide features” in the Kalayaan Islands in the South China Sea, the foreign office said.  “The lingering unauthorized presence of Chinese fishing and maritime vessels is not only illegal, but is also a source of instability in the region,” it said. The statement noted that the “persistent swarming” of Chinese ships violated the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea and “the final and binding 2016 arbitral award” won by the Philippines over China. Moreover, it was a violation of a regional agreement to avoid actions that could inflame tensions, the department said. In March and April, Philippine complaints about hundreds of Chinese ships and boats clustering in the waters of Whitsun Reef were the focus of bilateral tensions over the disputed sea. The announcement about the latest protest came about 10 days after the department summoned a senior Chinese diplomat to protest the alleged harassment by the China Coast Guard of a joint Filipino-Taiwanese research ship in the South China Sea in April. Philippine Coast Guard members in rubber boats patrol near Chinese ships moored at Whitsun Reef in the South China Sea, April 14, 2021. Credit: Philippine Coast Guard via AP Sherman-Marcos meeting Earlier on Thursday, Sherman met with Marcos at his campaign headquarters where they were joined by the Philippine envoy to Washington, Jose Manuel Romualdez, as well as other officials. Sherman and Marcos “agreed on the importance of partnering together to strengthen our economies,” according to the U.S. State Department. Topics discussed included the countries’ longtime alliance, the importance of public-private partnership, clean energy, the digital economy, and the importance of human rights and the rule of law.  “The deputy secretary and the president-elect highlighted the importance of the U.S.-Philippine alliance to security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and the world,” the U.S. statement said.  Sherman, the highest ranking State Department official to visit since the pandemic, also paid a courtesy call on Locsin, the country’s top diplomat.  In a series of posts on Twitter, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Sherman and Locsin discussed “concrete ways to further enhance relations” amid a government transition. Sherman’s visit to Manila marked the second leg of a four-nation Asian tour, which began in South Korea early this week and will take her to Laos and Vietnam. During a stop in Hanoi scheduled for this weekend, the issue of China’s plans to build a navy base in Cambodia are likely to be on the agenda of Sherman’s talks with Vietnamese officials, diplomatic sources told RFA.

Read More

Nearly 600 properties seized by junta over alleged ties to armed resistance

Editor08 mins

Myanmar’s junta has confiscated nearly 600 homes and other buildings owned by people it claims are members or supporters of the armed resistance, according to a report by independent research group the Institute for Strategy and Policy (ISP Myanmar). The report found that, between the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup and May 20 this year, authorities seized 586 properties, mostly from people who have alleged ties to the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Committee of Representatives (CRPH), and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group — all of which the regime considers “terrorist organizations.” Several other confiscated properties belonged to people the military regime said had a role in bombings of junta targets, anti-coup protests, and the nationwide anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM). Among the seizures were the homes of NUG acting President Duwa Lashi La and Prime Minister Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, the report said. The largest number of properties, 159, were confiscated from owners in embattled Sagaing region, where the military has faced some of the strongest resistance to date. Myint Htwe, a former lawmaker for the deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) party representing Ye-U township in the Sagaing Regional Parliament, called the military’s seizures “arbitrary” and illegal. “These confiscations are entirely arbitrary, according to the law,” the former MP, whose home was among those confiscated, told RFA’s Burmese Service. “The junta is a terrorist organization that has violated all the ethics of how soldiers should act and how civilians should be treated. I know they will never abide by the laws, and I don’t expect anything different.” According to ISP Myanmar’s findings, 373 properties, or nearly two-thirds of those seized, belonged to civilians. Another 147 properties belonged to lawmakers, while 66 were owned by the NLD or its members. Kyaw Htet Aung, senior researcher at ISP Myanmar, said the confiscations had taken an emotional, social and economic toll on the victims. “Especially, the family members and victims of home confiscations have had their lives disrupted and ruined,” he said. “When someone loses their home, they can live with relatives or shelter at a camp for internally displaced people,” he added. “But often it becomes difficult to maintain one’s regular social, economic, educational and medical activities after a home is lost. Owning a home is central part of one’s life.” Attempts by RFA to contact junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment on the confiscations went unanswered Wednesday. A photo shows the exterior of the home of Moe Ma Kha, a former NLD lawmaker for the Bago Regional Parliament, which was sealed off by junta authorities in Taungoo city on Feb. 12, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Targeting the NLD NLD Central Committee member Kyaw Htwe said the junta is illegally targeting members of his party. “The military regime is jealous of the NLD party for achieving landslide victories in every free and fair election. They know they cannot achieve a monopoly on power while the NLD is around, and that’s why they are targeting the party,” he said. “They destroyed the party headquarters, sealed party member’s homes, and arrested the party members. They even arrest and intimidate the family members of NLD members and supporters. They are taking away the rights of the people.” The junta says voter fraud led to the NLD’s landslide victory in the country’s November 2020 election but has yet to provide evidence for its claims. It has instead violently suppressed nationwide protests calling for a return to civilian rule, killing 1,909 people and arresting 14,046 in the 16 months since, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. Most detainees from the NLD were charged for alleged crimes that carry heavy sentences, including rebellion, corruption, unlawful association and incitement. The NLD said in January that more than three-quarters of its members arrested by the junta remained in detention more than 11 months after the military seized power. Since the Feb. 1 coup, junta security forces have arrested hundreds of NLD members, including leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former President Win Myint. Political Analyst Than Soe Naing said the junta is using every means at its disposal to crush the resistance movement and drive away its supporters. “They intend to make NLD supporters and proponents of the NUG suffer and become homeless,” he said. “There are no laws or constitutional provisions that support such actions. The junta is now using unprecedented and inhumane tactics to suppress the resistance and its supporters.” Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read More

China bans tattoos for minors, forbidding anyone from offering the service to teens

Editor06 mins

China’s State Council has issued a ban on tattoos for minors, banning any business, individual or organization from providing such services or encouraging young people to get tattoos. “No enterprise, organization or individual shall provide tattoo services to minors, and shall not coerce, induce or instigate minors to tattoo,” the June 6 directive, which takes immediate legal effect, said. “For immature minors, tattoos may be just a whim, something they do in pursuit of individuality, but the harm done is enormous and long-lasting,” the document said. It said that while similar bans already exist in some parts of China, including Shanghai and Jiangsu, different local authorities have different attitudes when it comes to regulating the behavior of children and teenagers. The directive overrules local law-making, requiring judicial and law enforcement agencies to comply with its provisions without exception. “Families and schools must actively guide minors to increase their awareness of tattoos and their adverse effects, so that minors can consciously and rationally refuse tattoos,” the directive said. “Service providers must improve their sense of responsibility and resolutely refrain from offering tattoo services to minors,” it said. Taiwanese youth worker Yeh Ta-hwa said teenagers typically get tattoos as a form of self-expression, and the new rules are a bid to exert greater control over young people’s freedom of expression in China. “Xi Jinping has been curbing people’s freedom of expression since he took office,” Yeh told RFA. “He has done so much to restrict the freedom of young people, including banning them from any form of religion under the age of 18, limiting their online gaming time and what content they can view.” “[All of this] shows that China’s control and monitoring of its citizens’ free will is getting tighter and tighter.” In some other countries, including the U.S., some European countries and democratic Taiwan, tattoo parlors are allowed to tattoo minors with parental consent. Paternalistic overreach? Yeh said tattoos were previously stigmatized in Taiwan, where they are closely linked in people’s minds with organized crime, but under the influence of indigenous peoples’ culture, they are now increasingly seen as an expression of culture, art and personal freedom. U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said the law is highly paternalistic, putting the state in loco parentis. “This is an overreach, a paternalistic approach in which the government takes the place of the parents,” Teng said. “Tattoos aren’t particularly harmful, so the government is going too far, trying to control them.” “It would be better coming from the parents, through education and persuasion.” Taiwan-based dissident Zhou Shuguang said the Chinese government could fear that people will use tattoos to show allegiance to something other than the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), or use it as a form of political protest. “They probably fear that minors’ bodies will become taken over by various cultural symbols, making it harder for the CCP to brainwash them,” Zhou told RFA. “Cultural icons, cartoon characters and writing are all carriers of culture.” “Minors could be branded for life, with the symbols hard to erase,” he said. “The other thing they could be worried about is that people will use tattoos as tokens of recognition when forming groups, the thing that the CCP fears most, and has to break up.” Teng agreed. “For example, if someone gets the numbers 8964 tattooed on their body [a covert reference to the 1989 Tiananmen massacre], just putting those numbers together is going to be trouble,” he said. “China won’t allow those numbers to be posted online.” He said the move was part and parcel of China’s “patriotic education” program in schools. “Chinese education is actually a form of brainwashing, and these controls on minors’ freedom of speech by the entire education system is doing great harm to their minds,” Teng said. “There may be no bloodshed involved, but a lifetime of [psychological] harm instead.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

Kidnapping suspect fled to Vietnam to escape arrest

Editor013 mins

A suspect in the kidnapping of Vietnamese oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh returned to Vietnam to evade a European Union arrest warrant, according to a Berlin-based journalist covering the case, while another reporter claimed he could have avoided arrest if he had stayed away from Europe for a few more months. The German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said last week that a Vietnamese national, identified as Anh T.L., was arrested in Prague and handed over to German authorities on June 1. He is accused of “spying and assisting in deprivation of liberty,” in connection with the abduction of Thanh in a Berlin park in 2017. Journalist Le Trung Khoa told RFA the suspect is Le Anh Tu, a Vietnamese resident of the Czech Republic.   Khoa said the German prosecutor’s office issued an indictment against him during the trial of another suspect, Nguyen Hai Long, in 2018. The indictment said that Le Anh Tu drove the minibus used to kidnap Thanh on July 23, 2017 and then sought refuge at the Vietnamese Embassy in Berlin: “Clearly, he was directly involved in the kidnapping because he was the driver of the car that was used during the illegal detention of Trinh Xuan Thanh. He witnessed the entire process from the time the kidnapping team picked up Lieutenant General Duong Minh Hung and other Vietnamese officers at a nearby hotel,” said Khoa. German journalist Marina Mai, who has also been covering the case, told RFA that Le Anh Tu would not have been arrested if he had arrived in Europe more than four months later: “Secret operations in Germany have a five-year statute of limitations,” she said. “Because the arrest warrant for Mr. Anh was effective from August 10, 2017, as far as I know, it would expire on August 10, 2022. So if Mr. Anh came to Europe four months later, he may not have been arrested. Now it has happened, I think there will be a second trial related to Trinh Xuan Thanh’s abduction to try him.” Meetings at the Borik Hotel It is claimed that Le Anh Tu drove another vehicle from the Czech Republic to the Borik Hotel in the Slovakian capital Bratislava where he met with Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security, To Lam. Khoa said that because Le Anh Tu was involved in almost the entire process of abducting and taking Trinh Xuan Thanh from Germany to the Czech Republic a trial will help clarify To Lam’s role and reveal whether or not former Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák was also involved in the kidnapping.  “In [Nguyen Hai Long’s] sentencing they clearly stated that To Lam was the one who organized this kidnap in Europe. However, at present, there is not enough real evidence to prosecute To Lam so I think they will do it step by step. Le Anh Tu’s arrest and extradition to Germany was a very important step because he [took part in] the meeting of the former Slovak Minister of Interior and To Lam at the Borik Hotel in Slovakia.” Vietnam’s Minister of Public Security met with then-Slovak Republic Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák at the hotel on July 26, 2017. The government then lent a plane to the Vietnamese to fly to Moscow from Bratislava. Some German and Slovakian media outlets speculated that Vietnam might have used the plane to take Thanh back to Vietnam. Robert Kaliňák denies being involved in the kidnapping plan. In December 2018, Slovakia decided to suspend an investigation of officials suspected of aiding Thanh’s return to Vietnam. At the time of the kidnapping the German foreign ministry condemned Vietnam’s abduction on German soil as “a flagrant violation of German law and international law, which we will never tolerate.” It imposed sanctions, including the suspension of its strategic partnership with Vietnam and expelled four Vietnamese Embassy employees and their families. German economic groups who want to do business with Vietnam have criticized the sanctions, according to Mai. She said their pressure persuaded the government to begin normalizing relations with Vietnam at the end of 2018.  “This does not mean that Germany is no longer interested in the Trinh Xuan Thanh case,” Mai said.  “Germany has recognized Vietnam’s release of Nguyen Van Dai to Germany, and also acknowledged that Vietnam did not execute Trinh Xuan Thanh. But the German government is still demanding the release of Trinh Xuan Thanh and his return to Germany.” “Vietnamese diplomatic passport holders are still not allowed to travel to Germany without a visa and Germany has not allowed Vietnam to appoint a liaison officer with the police and secret service in the Vietnamese embassy in Berlin since the kidnapping happened,” she added. Trinh Xuan Thanh is led by policemen to the courtroom at Hanoi People’s Courthouse on January 8, 2018. CREDIT: AFP Germany will ‘pursue it to the end’ According to Le Trung Khoa, Germany’s independent judiciary means it will investigate this case to the end, as evidenced by the fact that Le Anh Tu was arrested as soon as he returned to Europe: “Germany must, and will, pursue it to the end according to the independent judiciary, no matter what they ignore or like in Vietnam or say it will take a long time to pass.” In 2017, the German side made three requests to Vietnam in order to re-establish diplomatic relations between the two countries. The first was to ask Vietnam to return the status quo by returning Trinh Xuan Thanh to Germany. The second was to apologize for violating the law and sovereignty of Germany. The third was to promise not to repeat the crime. However, Vietnam has not complied with these requests. Marina Mai said the likelihood of Thanh being returned to Germany depends on whether the Hanoi government wants to stop violating international law.   “That can only happen if Trinh Xuan Thanh is returned to Germany,” she said.  “Germany is ready to issue a passport to Trinh Xuan Thanh. His family is living here.”  Vietnam unlikely to return Thanh any time…

Read More

Myanmar’s junta uses identity documents as tools of genocide against Rohingya: report

Editor09 mins

Myanmar’s junta is using identity documents to carry out a genocide of the ethnic Rohingya community, much like the perpetrators of the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide, according to a new report, which calls on the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The 63-page report entitled “Genocide by Attrition: The Role of Identity Documents in the Holocaust and the Genocides of Rwanda and Myanmar” and published Tuesday by the Southeast Asian rights group Fortify Rights, details how the junta is forcing Rohingya to obtain National Verification Cards (NVCs) that its authors say effectively strip them of access to full citizenship rights and protections. It also draws on case studies from the Holocaust and Rwandan genocides to demonstrate how authoritarian regimes use such documents to “systematically identify, persecute, and kill targeted populations on a widespread and massive scale.” “Perpetrators have long used identification documents in the commission of genocide,” said Ken MacLean, co-author of the report, senior advisor to Fortify Rights, and Clark University Professor at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, in a statement accompanying the release of the report. “Evidence from the Holocaust and Rwandan genocides show striking similarities with the ongoing erasure of the Rohingya identity in Myanmar by the junta.” The report found that identification cards such as those used during the Holocaust and Rwandan genocides contributed to “genocide by attrition,” which it defined as “the gradual destruction of a protected group by reducing their strength through sustained, indirect methods of destruction.” Such policies have long been in use in Myanmar and continue to play a role in the ongoing genocide of the Rohingyas, the report said, citing interviews with more than 20 Rohingya-genocide survivors, leaked junta documents, and a media analysis of junta-backed news outlets since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 coup. It said that Rohingya in Western Myanmar’s Rakhine state described how the junta forces them to carry NVCs to prevent them from identifying as “Rohingya,” restrict their movement, and curtail their ability to earn a living, “creating conditions of life designed to be destructive.” Instead, they are made to identify as “Bengali” immigrants from Bangladesh in what the report said is a bid by authorities to exclude them from citizenship and ethnicity within Myanmar. The report cited the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention’s findings that increased politicization of identity and discriminatory measures targeting protected groups are indicators in creating “an environment conducive to the commission of atrocity crimes,” noting that similar legal and administrative tools were used to facilitate the destruction of the Jewish and Tutsi populations, and are now being used against the Rohingya. “Rohingya continue to face existential threats under the military junta, an illegitimate regime responsible for far-reaching atrocities,” said John Quinley, senior human rights specialist at Fortify Rights and co-author of the report. “The ongoing denial of Rohingya ethnicity and citizenship are indicators of genocide. The [shadow] National Unity Government has committed to ensuring Rohingya citizenship and inclusion. The junta, however, is still using coercive measures to force Rohingya to identify as foreigners, erasing records of their existence.” Myanmar immigration officials hand over an identification document to a Rohingya woman at the Taungpyoletwei town repatriation camp in Rakhine state’s Maungdaw township, near the Bangladesh border, in a file photo. Credit: AFP Holding the junta accountable Fortify Rights said that while the connection between identification documents and international crimes is well-recognized, some U.N. officials, embassies, and others in Myanmar have failed to condemn the use of NVCs in targeting Rohingya. In some cases, the group said, they have even endorsed the documents as a solution to the group’s “statelessness.” The report’s findings demonstrate links between the NVC process and acts of genocide and should be a focus of investigations and legal proceedings, Fortify Rights said. The violations documented in Genocide by Attrition demonstrate links between the NVC process and genocidal acts and should be a focus of ongoing investigations and legal proceedings, said Fortify Rights. It called on U.N. member states to cut Myanmar’s junta off from access to arms, finances, and political legitimacy, and urged the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation in the country to the International Criminal Court (ICC). “The Myanmar military junta poses an undeniable threat to international peace and security,” said Fortify’s Quinley. “U.N. member states must wake up and act now to deny the junta the resources it craves and to hold it accountable for all of its crimes including genocide.” In 2016, a military crackdown forced some 90,000 Rohingya to flee Rakhine state and cross into neighboring Bangladesh, while a larger one in 2017 in response to insurgent attacks, killed thousands of members of the ethnic minority and led to an exodus of more than 740,000 across the border.  Human rights groups have produced a trove of credible reports based on commercial satellite imagery and extensive interviews with Rohingya about the operations in Rakhine state in 2017, including arbitrary killings, torture, and mass rape. Gambia has accused Myanmar’s military leadership of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention in Rohingya areas in a case it brought to the Hague-based International Court of Justice. The court is holding hearings to determine whether it has jurisdiction to judge if atrocities committed there constituted a genocide.

Read More

Myanmar’s junta vows to proceed with high-profile executions

Editor010 mins

The court-ordered executions of four Burmese prisoners, including a deposed lawmaker and a prominent former activist sentenced to death for “terrorism,” will be carried out despite widespread international criticism, a junta official said Tuesday. Junta deputy information minister, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, rejected the possibility for pardons in the four cases, which are part of a surge in death sentences under martial law in Myanmar. Since taking over in a coup last year, the military has transferred the authority to try cases of civilians to special or existing military tribunals, resulting in what rights groups say are summary proceedings with no chance of appeal. Former National League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker Phyo Zeyar Thaw and 88 Generation leader Ko Jimmy were sentenced to death for violating the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law. Two other men — Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw — were sentenced to death in Yangon region’s Hlaing Tharyar township on charges of murder. All four lost appeals of their cases last week. “The death penalty will be implemented,” Zaw Min Tun told RFA’s Burmese Service. “They will not be pardoned. We have finished the process all the way up through the appeals,” he added, when asked whether junta chief, Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, would consider staying their executions. Zaw Min Tun said the four men had been transferred to the custody of the junta’s Prison Department, which is now responsible for their cases. According to the junta, Phyo Zeyar Thaw and Ko Jimmy maintained contact with Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), the Committee Representing the People’s Parliament (CRPP), and other organizations labeled “terrorist groups” by the military regime and had carried out “acts of violence.” The two men were sentenced to death by a military tribunal on Jan. 21. The four death sentences, as well 111 others that have been handed down by junta courts between the military’s Feb. 1, 2021, coup, and May 19 this year, have drawn criticism from legal experts and rights groups, who say the regime is threatening the public with unfair executions. The United Nations, Washington, Ottawa, and Paris have issued statements strongly condemning the decisions in the cases now proceeding to execution, although the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — of which Myanmar is a member state — has yet to respond. Thailand-based rights group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), which claims junta security forces have arrested 14,032 people between the start of the coup and June 7 this year – 10,976 of whom it says remain in detention – issued a statement Monday calling on the U.N., ASEAN, and the rest of the international community to intervene in the cases. The junta’s Foreign Affairs Ministry recently responded to the statements by the U.N. and Western governments, accusing their authors of “condoning acts of terrorism.” Waging ‘psychological warfare’ Kyaw Htwe, a member of the NLD’s Central Executive Committee, echoed concerns that the junta is using the sentences as a warning to its opponents in an interview with RFA on Tuesday. But he said proceeding with the executions could ultimately harm the regime itself. “I think the junta is using the [threat of the] death penalty of the four men, including Ko Jimmy and Ko Phyo Zeyar Thaw, to wage psychological warfare against the armed resistance and the people,” he said. “They are testing the limits. They have crossed the line and made an irrational decision, which required presidential orders and involved several steps of appeal. If they stupidly implement this decision, they will face a strong response from the domestic and international communities.” Kyaw Htwe said the junta’s administrative, legislative and judicial decisions are all “illegal,” because it is an illegitimate government that seized power through force. However, he didn’t provide clarification on how the NLD intends to respond to the death sentences. NUG Human Rights Minister Aung Myo Min said the junta lacks the judicial authority to issue execution orders, which require an in-depth and transparent process to avoid wrongful convictions. “We cannot trust the junta’s tribunal, courts, and sentencing. They are murdering innocent civilians and view all democracy activists as the enemy,” he said. “[Proceeding with execution] is the wrong decision, both in terms of human rights and rule of law.” High-stakes bluff A Yangon-based attorney, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said he believes the execution orders are a bluff by the military regime as part of a bid to extract some sort of concession from the international community. “After reviewing all factors, I conclude that it is very unlikely they will carry out the execution order,” he said, adding that it is likely the junta wants to use the cases “as a bargaining chip for political reasons.” “Given the fact that the world is protesting these orders, and that the decisions are in violation of international and domestic laws, they will face severe consequences if they proceed.” However, political analyst Than Soe Naing told RFA that the junta, which the AAPP says has killed more than 1,900 civilians since the coup, has demonstrated over the past 16 months that it has little regard for the sanctity of human life. “They might reconsider if the international community appeals to them courteously,” he said. “Otherwise, I think they would actually hang Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zeyar Thaw, as they are little more than a group of thugs.” In its latest annual report covering the judicial use of the death penalty for the period January to December 2021, London-based rights group Amnesty International found that dozens of people were “arbitrarily sentenced to death” by Myanmar’s military tribunals, “several without the defendants being present, in what was widely perceived as a way to target political opponents and protestors.” The group said that prior to February 2021, Myanmar’s known death sentences were sporadically imposed for murder and usually commuted through mass pardons. However, the yearly average for the years 2017-2020 had remained lower than 10. The last execution in Myanmar — that of student leader Salai Tin Maung…

Read More

Cambodia and China deny that Beijing is building secret facility at Ream Naval Base

Editor08 mins

China is not secretly building a military facility for its exclusive use inside a naval base Cambodia, a government spokesman said, dismissing a new report that detailed how both countries have been concealing a project that first gained U.S. attention in 2019. The Washington Post reported on Monday that China is building a new facility­–its second overseas military installation after a base in Djibouti–on the northern part of Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, where Cambodia will host a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday. The newspaper quoted a Chinese official in Beijing as saying that “a portion of the base” will be used by “the Chinese military.” The official denied it was for “exclusive” military use, telling the Post that scientists would also use the facility. Cambodian government spokesperson Phay Siphan echoed the Beijing official’s denial that it would be for exclusive Chinese military use. “There is no agreement or law saying that the construction is reserved for Chinese benefit exclusively,” he told RFA’s Khmer Service. He said the base remains open for visits from other countries, including the United States, but the Post report said Cambodian and Chinese authorities have worked hard to hide the Chinese presence in Ream, keeping the Chinese areas off limits to third-country visitors and altering their dress to avoid scrutiny. Ream base became the center of controversy in July 2019 after The Wall Street Journal cited U.S. and allied officials as confirming a secret deal to allow the Chinese to use part of the base for 30 years—with automatic renewals every 10 years after that—and to post military personnel, store weapons and berth warships. The reported deal, which would provide China with its first naval staging facility in Southeast Asia and allow it to significantly expand patrols on the South China Sea, was vehemently denied by Hun Sen, who said permitting foreign use of a military base in the country would “be in full contradiction to Cambodia’s constitution.” Last year, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman voiced concern about the Chinese military presence at Ream Naval Base during a visit to the country, citing Cambodia’s razing of two U.S.-constructed buildings on the base in 2020. After meeting with Prime Minister Hun Sen, she arranged for the U.S. Embassy to send its defense attaché for regular visits. Ten days later, the attaché arrived at the base, but he cut the tour short when he was not allowed full access, including to the sites of the two buildings. The U.S. had offered to renovate one of them, and the choice to destroy it suggested that Cambodia had accepted Chinese assistance to develop the base, a Pentagon report released last year said. A Cambodian official told RFA at that time that Cambodia never agreed to give the attaché a full tour, and that the U.S. had committed a breach of trust for asking more than what was agreed upon. Exiled political analyst Kim Sok told RFA that Cambodia and China are hiding the truth with their denials. “If any suspicions about the Chinese naval base are not resolved, Cambodia could face serious consequences—not only a diplomatic crisis in the form of pressure from the U.S.—but also it will lead to a security crisis. This will affect regional issues if there is no solution,” Kim Sok said. The base will bring more Chinese into Cambodia for purposes other than tourism or business, Cambodian-American rights activist and legal expert Theary Seng told RFA. “The Cambodian political situation is fragile, especially in terms of building good communication with the free world, because the ruling party dissolved its competitors to bolster the dictatorial regime. This has enabled China to [pounce on] the opportunity to increase its influence [in the region],” she said. Australia-based political scientist Carl Thayer said the semantics don’t change the situation. “Ream Naval Base is a Cambodian base on its own territory. Are they allocating a section that China can use? And if so, can Cambodians gain access to it without seeking prior permission?” he asked. “So Hun Sen says it’s not a base, it is a facility, and it’s still a base. Or [as] Shakespeare [said], ‘A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,’” added Thayer, an emeritus professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “A Chinese navy base in Cambodia, if it’s called a facility, it’s still a Chinese navy base,” he said. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

Refugees in Myanmar’s Chin state excluded from ASEAN humanitarian assistance plan

Editor08 mins

Nearly 100,000 internally displaced ethnic Chins in western Myanmar have called for help from civil society groups to avoid allowing the military junta to control distribution of humanitarian aid from Southeast Asian countries, saying their strife-torn region is not receiving assistance. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) — a regional grouping that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its 10 member states, including Myanmar — announced on Sunday that it would work with the military regime to distribute humanitarian aid to Myanmar. The number of internally displaced people (IDPs) in Myanmar topped 1 million as of May 30 amid fighting and armed clashes across the country since the February 2021 military coup overthrew the democratically elected government, triggering civilian displacement and a humanitarian crisis, according to the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR). Residents of Chin state have been strong opponents of the military since the takeover, turning the 36,000-square-kilometer (13,900-square-mile) territory into a battlefield. Nearly 90,000 local residents have been forced by the fighting to flee the area. In Chin state and Magway and Sagaing regions in Myanmar’s northwest, indiscriminate attacks by junta forces against civilians have resulted in numerous deaths and casualties, the torching of homes and villages, house searches, arbitrary arrests and detentions, UNHCR said. Restrictions on movement and transportation has led to shortages of food and goods in among IDPs and host communities in the region, the U.N. agency said. ASEAN’s promised aid will bypass ethnic Chin IDPs, according to the interim Chin National Consultative Council, Chin state’s leading political group, and the national Unity Government (NUG), the government in exile formed elected lawmakers and members of parliament ousted in the coup. ASEAN will provide assistance to Kayah and Kayin states, as well as to Magway, Sagaing and Bago regions, allowing a military junta-led task force to make decisions on how aid is delivered through the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management, said Salai Isaac Khin, chairman of the Interim Chin National Consultative Council (ICNCC). “We wonder if they had ignored us because they didn’t know the ground conditions,” he told RFA. “What’s the meaning of this? This is questionable. It’s like the people of Chin state, the most vulnerable people, have had their rights ignored.” ‘We’re so disappointed’ The states and regions that will receive the humanitarian aid have 50,000 IDPs due to post-coup fighting and violence, about 45% of the number of displaced people in Chin state, said the ICNCC and the NUG in a statement issued Sunday. Furthermore, over 30,000 IDPs from Chin state have fled over the border into India. RFA called ASEAN’s office in Yangon to ask why Chin IDPs were not included in the aid program, but no one responded. A spokesman for the Chin State Joint Defense Committee (CJDC) said it was disappointing that the state is being excluded from receiving ASEAN humanitarian assistance. “Almost the entire town of Thantlang in Chin state was burned down during the fighting,” he said. “In Falam, about 93 houses were turned into ashes. Thirty percent of the Chin people are war refugees. We’re so disappointed that our people have been left out of the ASEAN Humanitarian Assistance Program. It isn’t fair. We strongly oppose that this entire aid program is coming through the junta.” An aid worker assisting the Chin IDPs, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said ongoing fighting has made it difficult to travel between Thantlang and Hakha, and food and medical aid are badly needed. “Chin state is a mountainous region, and it’s very difficult to bring rice from the mainland,” he said. “We want to ask ASEAN whether it has ignored us because it doesn’t think that Chin state is involved in Myanmar politics,” the aid worker added. “Another thing is that ASEAN should meet and work with NGOs and international NGOs instead of with the junta.” Salai Charlie, who helps Chin refugees in Mizoram, India, told RFA that Christian groups and NGOs in India provided initial assistance to those fleeing the fighting but now have stopped. “Currently we are not receiving foreign aid,” he told RFA. “The Mizoram government is not helping us. The church in Mizoram, the NGOs and the wealthy in Mizoram have donated everything they could to help us. No one is helping us anymore. The rains have come, and we cannot work.” RFA could not reach junta spokesman, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, for comment. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane for RFA Burmese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Read More

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