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Grassroots efforts in border areas address mental anguish for Myanmar refugees

Editor014 mins

Every Tuesday morning, a handful of Myanmar refugees visit her office in the Thai border town of Mae Sot to talk about the terror of fleeing violence and their anxiety about the future. The psychiatrist, who asked not to be identified, is familiar with the trauma her patients share, having fled Myanmar herself.  As the only Burmese-speaking psychiatrist in town, she hears their stories free of charge about their journey to Thailand, where they then face new stresses – risk of arrest by Thai police, the struggle to support themselves and the worry about family members left behind.  Many of them have post-traumatic stress disorder, depression or anxiety. Thailand hasn’t ratified the 1951 U.N. Refugee Convention and so doesn’t officially recognize refugees, but allows thousands to stay in border camps. Many newcomers from Myanmar try to survive on their own, under the radar – and many don’t seek mental health help, or don’t know it exists. “There is no future, and basic needs are not fulfilled, [not even] security because Thai police are always waiting to arrest people. So sometimes I feel like it is beyond my ability,” she said.  “I can see six to seven people in a morning once a week, but it is totally not enough.” The Mae Tao Clinic’s psychiatric care unit where she works is one of a handful of grassroots efforts that has sprung up in the last year to address the growing need for mental health care for the thousands of displaced peoples along the Thai-Burma border. Rising depression Rates of depression and anxiety within Myanmar have risen since the February 2021 coup, according to one mental health services provider working in counseling that requested anonymity to protect the continuity of their work.  They found that the highest averages came from Karenni state, which borders northern Thailand, where 38 percent of surveyed individuals reported experiencing moderately severe to severe depression.   People take part in a yoga class at the Joy House community center in Mae Sot, Thailand. The center offers 11 classes a week for adults and children in art, music therapy, yoga, and cooking. Credit: RFA Other border regions, such as Mon and Thanintaryi States, also reported higher rates among small surveyed populations. In people under 25 nationwide, 37 percent indicated they had symptoms of moderately severe to severe depression.  The study reports that suggested treatment for a diagnosis of moderately severe depression is treatment with medication, therapy, or both.  But too often, they receive neither.  While data on the diaspora in Thailand is minimal, preliminary research by another anonymous nonprofit supporting Myanmar migrants in Thailand found only 7 percent of those on the border contacted a counselor during periods of stress.  Among the newly arrived political dissidents and refugees, nearly half reported they had no income and a third attributed mental distress to their restricted movement without documentation.  Although the Mae Tao Clinic and other community initiatives are located in Thailand, they say mental distress relating to displacement, migration and trauma are apparent on both sides of the border. The mental health services provider of the initial study told RFA the higher levels of depression in Karenni State and along the Thai border are likely due to the increased violence in the area.   “Due to more violence, there are more refugees and these refugees are more likely to be traumatized or simply feel helpless and hopeless as they had to leave their home and everything behind,” the group said.  Meeting a Need Nyunt Naing Thein, a Myanmar counselor, trainer and technical support provider at Mae Tao Clinic, helped open the psychiatric unit in August. “Even though I wanted to open it, we had no human capacity to do it,” he said, adding that some newly arrived migrants had already been able to access medication. “Psychiatric cases are coming up – actually, they are already in the community.” Before the psychiatrist’s arrival, the clinic had previously been unable to prescribe medication for anxiety and depression and did not stock it.  “I convinced the woman in charge from the Mae Tao Clinic and some responsible persons of the clinic that they should buy some medication,” the psychiatrist explained. She said medication wasn’t necessary in all cases, but it was a healthier alternative to substance abuse problems she sees growing more common. Some come in simply for a sympathetic ear. But she has also seen cases of anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse, and less commonly, cases of psychosis that require medication. Participants in the Joy Center yoga class do the child’s pose. Credit: RFA Since the coup began, Nyunt Naing Thein has organized training for hundreds of aid workers and medical professionals on psychological first aid and basic counseling training, focused on empathetic listening, mental health awareness and emergency response to trauma.  They’ve also organized men’s and women’s groups, where people in need of social support can talk about the issues they’re experiencing.  ‘Thriving’ Shortly after the volunteer psychiatrist’s arrival, Nyunt Naing Thain started working as network coordinator for a mental health and psychosocial support alliance among Mae Sot’s civil society organizations on the border.  They dubbed the organization ‘Shin Than Yar’, or “thriving” in Burmese, and use it to share collective resources for training. In addition to this alliance, a recently opened community center, Joy House, has also gained quick popularity in the border town. Catering to the large number of Myanmar residents residing in Mae Sot, the center offers 11 classes a week for adults and children in art, music therapy, yoga, and cooking.  The center says despite only opening three months prior, some 250 adults and children have attended classes, with yoga sometimes spilling out of the main room and onto the porch outside.  “When I just started, people didn’t really know what this therapy is. At the start, it was out of curiosity. Some people confused it with music theory, like teaching music,” said a worker named JJ who holds a biweekly music therapy class at the center.  A…

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Southeast Asia’s water festivals: Hopes and scenes

Editor06 mins

As Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos celebrate their annual New Year’s water festivals, RFA asked readers what they hoped for in the year ahead. For many, the wishes are simple – peace and freedom. Cambodia “As a Cambodian, I wish the country and its people would get a leader who pays attention to people’s living standards so they can live in harmony, democracy (and) the rich and poor have equal rights, the same as those who live in the free world. I also wish people would have mutual unity and would restore Cambodia to the prosperity that our ancestors left us.” Sophie Lok “I want RFA to resume its office in this peaceful country. Losing RFA is losing breaking news!” Mala San “I wish Hun Sen would lose the upcoming election.” Boozz Boy “I wish this current regime wouldn’t wage war against its own people.” Rachana Konpa “Hun Sen’s regime changes to a democratic country.” Phairy Kim Myanmar “We miss the past. We hope for peace.” Yangon youth “We would like to get back the stability and development in Myanmar like under Mother Suu’s administration. We would like to see the immediate release of all those arbitrarily detained including Mother Suu and President U Win Myint, and to regain the power by the NLD government, which was elected by the people. I do not want to see people being killed unjustly.” “I wish for the emergence of a federal state which has been desired by all ethnic minorities. I do not want to see the country’s future leaders sacrifice their lives. May the Spring Revolution be successful as soon as possible!” Mandalay woman “As we mark Myanmar’s New Year, may Myanmar be liberated from military dictatorship and end the wars.” Aung Naingtun “I have a sole New Year wish. It is nothing, but down with the military council! I do not want to wish for other things. I know prayer alone is not enough, so I am doing it pragmatically. If I could travel with ‘Time travel,’ I would like to go back to January 31, 2021 and its previous days. I miss those days ruled by Mother (Suu)… I miss my home. I was forced to leave my motherland but I am eager to return to my family.” Salmon “My hope is that people should be involved [in the movement] and they should provide more assistance to the success of the uprising. May Myanmar people possess better lives in the New Year! May the uprising be successful as soon as possible!” Win Ko Ko Oo “I am from Taze township, Sagaing region. In previous years, I used to return to my village during Thingyan holidays. I am so sad that I cannot return to my home this year because I have no home there. Although festivals are held in cities, I cannot enjoy them. I am so sad because I cannot return to my native village and my parents.” Maung Aye Min Htet from a village in Taze township, Sagaing region Laos “I wish I had better health, better living conditions and a higher salary. We can’t go on like this in the current condition in which the cost of living is rising, while the income is staying low.” Grade school teacher in Pakkading district, Borikhamxay province “Yesterday, I went grocery shopping and I bought three cat fish for which I paid 90,000 kip ($5.29), up more than 7% a month ago.” A businesswoman in Vientiane wishes that Laos could get out of the economic and financial troubles sooner than later An owner of a small factory in capital Vientiane wants the war between Ukraine and Russia to be over as soon as possible because the war is the main cause of all the economic and financial woes in the world, including Laos.

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Blinken’s trip to Vietnam may result in possible upgrade for US-Vietnam ties

Editor07 mins

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is hoping to upgrade relations with Vietnam to a strategic partnership from the current comprehensive one during meetings with officials in Hanoi on Friday and Saturday, amid China’s rising regional power and aggression in the South China Sea. Blinken is scheduled to meet with senior Vietnamese officials to discuss “our shared vision of a connected, prosperous, peaceful, and resilient Indo-Pacific region,” the State Department said in an April 10 statement. Blinken also will break ground on a new U.S. embassy compound in Hanoi. Blinken’s trip comes about two weeks after a phone call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Nguyen Phu Trong, general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. July will mark the 10th anniversary of the 2013 U.S.-Vietnam Comprehensive Partnership. Vietnam already has “strategic” partnerships with many U.S. allies, but the U.S. itself has remained at the lower “comprehensive” partnership level despite improvements in the bilateral relationship because disaccord over human rights hindered talks. But political analysts believe Vietnam may agree to boost the relationship this time around. Ha Hoang Hop, an associate senior fellow specializing in regional strategic studies at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, a research center in Singapore, said he was certain that Vietnam would upgrade its partnership with the U.S. during Blinken’s visit. “A good and better relationship between Vietnam and the U.S. will certainly contribute to maintaining the stability and security of Southeast Asia, as well as of a broader region,” he told RFA.  “It will also significantly make Vietnam more proactive, confident, and stronger in ensuring its stability and security given many complexities in the world and in the region.” Vietnam has comprehensive partnerships with a dozen other countries, strategic partnerships with another 13, and comprehensive strategic partnerships with China, Russia, India and South Korea.  A boost in relations between the U.S. and Vietnam would prompt China to react across the board in terms of security, economic development, trade and cultural exchange, Hop said.  “Even now, we all see that China does not want Vietnam to have good relations with other countries,” he said because Beijing believes it would not bode well for its claims in the South China Sea over which it has sparred with Hanoi for decades. “We all know they have used so-called ‘gray zone tactics’ to disturb, annoy and cause instability,” Hop said. “Then, they gradually encroach and at some point when other countries, including Vietnam, let it go, they will achieve their sovereignty goals.” Making Hanoi happy Prominent human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh also waxed positive on the possible upgrading of bilateral ties between the U.S. and Vietnam.  “This relationship is considered in the context of the U.S.’s strategy in the Indo-Pacific region,” he said. The strategy, issued by the Biden administration in early 2022, outlines the president’s vision for the U.S. to more firmly anchor itself in the Indo-Pacific region in coordination with allies and partners to ensure the region is free and open, connected, prosperous, secure and resilient.  “Vietnam’s position and role is quite important to the U.S.’s regional strategy, especially in terms of containing China in the South China Sea,” said Dinh, a former vice-president of the Ho Chi Minh Bar Association. “Therefore, the U.S. always tries to find ways to make Hanoi happy and deepen the bilateral relationship.” He went on to suggest that for the U.S. regional security issues have taken precedence over human rights in Vietnam. But Dinh cautioned that to avoid upsetting China, the Vietnamese government must take a tactful and smart approach to upgrade bilateral ties with the U.S. and not hastily use the term ‘strategic partnership.’” “Doing so, in reality, the two sides can work on the issues that a strategic partnership allows us to do, which a comprehensive partnership does not. China’s state-run Global Times newspaper on April 9 cited Chinese experts who said Blinken’s visit may yield results in maritime security or improvement in economic cooperation, but it would not affect Vietnam’s overall strategy because there are still inherent and structural contradictions – ideological and historical issues – between Vietnam and the U.S. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Matt Reed.

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Drone attack kills 8, injures 30 in Sagaing region

Editor03 mins

Eight people were killed and 30 were injured when a drone bombed a water festival pavilion in a village in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region. Locals said most of those injured in Thursday’s attack on Sagaing township’s Kywei Pon village were junta troops and members of the affiliated Pyu Saw Htee militia who were gathering there to celebrate the Thingyan festival in the run up to Burmese new year.  A junta statement released Friday confirmed the number of casualties and said five children were among the dead. It blamed a local People’s Defense Force for the attack, saying the drone dropped four bombs on the building. One resident told RFA the junta built the pavilion on a school soccer pitch. He said junta troops have been stationed in Sagaing township near the village since the February 2021 coup and local People’s Defense Forces often attack them. “I saw three cars transporting injured people to Sagaing’s 200-bed hospital this morning,” said the local, who didn’t want to be identified for safety reasons. “The army fired heavy artillery shells around the village after the incident.” Thursday, the first day of the water festival, was marked by a series of bombings of junta-built Thingyan pavilions. Four people were killed and 11 injured in Shan state’s Lashio town. Bombs also went off in Bago region’s Letpadan township, and Yangon’s Thaketa and Hlaingtharya townships but no one was injured. No group has claimed responsibility for any of Thursday’s attacks. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Tibetan official says video of Dalai Lama with boy showed his usual jovialness

Editor07 mins

The leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile defended the Dalai Lama on Thursday, telling reporters that video footage of the Tibetan Buddhist leader kissing a boy and asking him to “suck my tongue” was likely promoted online by pro-Chinese sources. “It needs no explanation as to who would gain from maligning the image, the reputation and the legacy of His Holiness,” said Penpa Tsering, the head of the India-based Central Tibetan Administration. “Considering the scale and extent of the orchestrated smear campaign, the political angle of this incident cannot be ignored.” Video of a Feb. 28 public event near the Dalai Lama’s residence in Dharamsala, India, has sparked online criticism over the last week. It prompted a statement of apology from him on Monday.  The clip shows the boy at first asking the 87-year-old for a hug during a ceremony in which the Dalai Lama blessed more than 120 students who had just completed a skills training course.  He then points to his cheek and says to the boy “first here.” The boy kisses the cheek and gives him a hug. Then the Dalai Lama motions to his lips and says “here also,” and kisses the boy briefly on the lips. He then sticks out his tongue and says “and suck my tongue.” With laughter in the background, the video shows the boy sticking his tongue out before withdrawing it, and the Dalai Lama did the same. In Tibetan culture sticking out one’s tongue is sometimes used as a traditional greeting, and can be seen as a sign of respect or agreement. The boy, Kiyan Kanodia, was interviewed by Radio Free Asia just after the event. Asked how he felt after meeting the Dalai Lama, he said he felt blessed with “positive energy.”  “I just can’t express how good it feels. It was a really good experience meeting him,” he said. “You feel very positive energy and there’s a lot of positive energy in you when you get blessed by him.” Kanodia’s grandfather, Basant Bansal, made similar remarks to RFA. Bansal is the chairman of the M3M Group, a real estate company in India whose philanthropic arm sponsored the skills training course. Antics, pranks and joviality Tibetan officials have found that the initial instigators for making the video go viral on social media were pro-Chinese, Tsering told reporters at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of South Asia in New Delhi. Tsering listed the many ways the Dalai Lama has been physically affectionate with people he meets – including political leaders.  Cuddling, holding someone’s nose, playing pranks and otherwise engaging in jovial interactions have all been all part of the Dalai Lama’s public repertoire, Tsering said. That includes touching foreheads, which he did with the boy at the February event. “That’s the highest honor, from a Buddhist perspective,” he said. “All of these are part of His Holiness’ antics.” The remark about the tongue “was meant to be for the amusement of others” in the room, Tsering said. “The personal integrity of His Holiness has never been in question in 87 years, so how can people pass judgment on one incident?” he asked. “We know how grandfatherly affection can be. But this went a little beyond.”  NGO wants an investigation Tsering pointed out that the boy’s mother was seated nearby during the event and didn’t have any complaints. Neither did any of the students, he said. Still, the executive director of a Delhi-based child rights group, Haq: Center for Child Rights, said that “no custom or traditional or religious practice that results in violation of children’s rights is acceptable.” Bharti Ali told RFA in an email that she is worried about the boy’s safety, especially now that the video has received so much attention. The incident “requires necessary investigation and action,” she added. “We cannot on the one hand teach safe and unsafe touch to children and on the other allow inappropriate actions to be passed off as playfulness,” she said. Tsering asked that anyone who is disturbed by the circulated footage watch video of the entire event to understand the tone of the event.  “We are sure you’ll be able to differentiate between lust and love,” he said. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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North Korea warns parents to send their truant kids to school

Editor07 mins

It’s been more than 10 days since the new school year began in North Korea, and a large number of poor children have yet to show up for classes because they are needed for farm work during the planting season. So authorities are warning their parents to send them to school or face interrogation or public shaming, sources in the country told Radio Free Asia. Most North Korean elementary schools should have around 30 students in each classroom, but one or two from each class have yet to show up for their first day of school, a resident in the northern province of Ryanggang, who is knowledgeable about the education sector in Paegam county, told RFA’s Korean Service Monday on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Today, the county’s education department sent a notice to parents who have not sent their children to school … warning that they will notify the party committees and their parents’ workplaces if they don’t attend,” he said. The warnings come after previous efforts to get the children to school failed, according to the source. “When the class attendance rates are down, the homeroom teacher will be interrogated,” he said. “Even if their classmates come to their homes to pick them up, or if the teacher visits with the parents, there are still quite a few children who do not come to school.” The source said that the children who aren’t attending school are from families experiencing economic hardship. “The reason why children do not come to school is because they have to help their parents, who are busy preparing their small plots of land for farming in the mountains as the planting season begins,” he said.  Matter of survival Planting season is vital for many rural families to survive.  “Farming on their private plots is the most important activity for the year because corn, beans, potatoes and whatever else can be grown on small plots of land will be the only food these households … have to stay alive this year,” the source said.  A North Korean boy works on a collective farm in South Hwanghae province. Credit: Reuters file photo The same problem existed in previous years, but it fell to the teachers to ask the parents to send their kids to school, he said. This is the first year that parents are getting an official warning, and it appears to be highly unusual.   While there’s no accompanying punishment laid out in the warning other than being reported to the party committee, the potential for public disgrace by such a high-ranking institution makes the report alone a serious threat, he said. For the country’s poorest, going into the mountains to find some empty land to grow vegetables is a matter of survival. North Korea has suffered from chronic food shortages for decades, and a suspension of trade with China during the COVID-19 pandemic made the shortages worse.  At one point during the pandemic, the government told the people that they would no longer receive rations and would be on their own for food.  The impoverished children work to cultivate the newly slashed and burned land, so they have no time to go to school. Summoned for questioning  In the city of Kimchaek, in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong, the problem is so dire that authorities there began calling in the parents for interrogation, a source there told RFA on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “There are a total of 28 students in my kid’s class in elementary school, but four of them are not attending,” she said. “Last week, schools in the city submitted absentee lists to the education department, and included their parents’ jobs, their titles and home addresses.” The source said she believes that the interrogations began on Monday.  “Interrogating the parents will not guarantee a 100% attendance rate,” she said. “For families who do not have food to eat right now or who are struggling to live, it is more important to not starve than it is to send their children to school.” Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Trafficked teens tell of torture at scam ‘casino’ on Myanmar’s chaotic border

Editor026 mins

It was a clear day when Kham set out from his home in northwestern Laos for what he thought was a chance to make money in the gilded gambling towns of the Golden Triangle, the border region his country shares with Thailand and Myanmar. On that day – a Friday, as he recalled – the teenager had gotten a Facebook note from a stranger: a young woman asking what he was doing and if he wanted to make some cash. He agreed to meet that afternoon. She picked up Kham, 16, along with a friend, and off they went, their parents none the wiser. “I thought to myself I’d work for a month or two then I’d go home,” Kham later said. (RFA has changed the real names of the victims in this story to protect them from possible reprisals.) But instead of a job, Kham ended up trafficked and held captive in a nondescript building on the Burmese-Thai border, some 200 miles south of the Golden Triangle and 400 miles from his home – isolated from the outside world, tortured and forced into a particular kind of labor: to work as a cyber-scammer.  Barbed wire fences are seen outside a shuttered Great Wall Park compound where Cambodian authorities said they had recovered evidence of human trafficking, kidnapping and torture during raids on suspected cybercrime compounds in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in Sept. 2022. Credit: Reuters In recent years, secret sites like the one where Kham was detained have proliferated throughout the region as the COVID-19 pandemic forced criminal networks to shift their strategies for making money. One popular scheme today involves scammers starting fake romantic online relationships that eventually lead to stealing as-large-as-possible sums of money from targets.  The scammers said that if they fail to do so, they are tortured. Teen victims from Luang Namtha province in Laos who were trafficked to a place they called the “Casino Kosai,” in an isolated development near the city of Myawaddy on Myanmar’s eastern border with Thailand, have described their ordeal to RFA.  Chillingly, dozens of teenagers and young people from Luang Namtha are still believed to be trapped at the site, along with victims from other parts of Asia. The case is but the tip of the iceberg in the vast networks of human trafficking that claim over 150,000 victims a year in Southeast Asia.  Yet it encapsulates how greed and political chaos mix to allow crime to operate unchecked, with teenagers like Kham paying the price. This fake Facebook ad for the Sands International is for a receptionist. It lists job benefits of 31,000 baht salary, free accommodation and two days off per month. Qualifications are passport holder, Thai citizen, 20-35 years old and the ability to work in Cambodia. Credit: RFA screenshot The promise of cash Typically, it starts with the lure of a job. In the case of Lao teenagers RFA spoke to, the bait can be as simple as a message over Facebook or a messaging app.  Other scams have involved more elaborate cons, with postings for seemingly legitimate jobs that have ensnared everyone from professionals to laborers to ambitious youths. What they have in common is the promise of high pay in glitzy, if sketchy, casino towns around Southeast Asia – many built with the backing of Chinese criminal syndicates that operate in poorly policed borderlands difficult to reach.  Before 2020, “a lot of these places were involved in two things: gambling, where groups of Thais and Chinese were going for a weekend casino holiday, or online betting,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at Human Rights Watch.  “Then, all of a sudden COVID hits, and these syndicates [that ran the casinos] decided to change their business model. What they came up with was scamming.”  A motorbike drives past a closed casino in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, in Feb. 2020. As travel restrictions bit during the pandemic, syndicates that ran the casinos shifted their focus from gambling to scams, says Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch. Credit: Reuters Today, gambling towns like Sihanoukville, in Cambodia, and the outskirts of Tonpheung, on the Laos side of the Golden Triangle, have become notorious for trapping people looking for work into trafficking.  But besides these places, there are also numerous unregulated developments where scamming “casinos” operate with little outside scrutiny, including on the Thai-Burmese border. Keo, 18, had a legitimate job at a casino in Laos when he was contacted via WhatsApp by a man who said he could make much more – 13 million kip ($766) a month, plus bonuses – by working in Thailand. He could leave whenever he wanted, the person claimed. “I thought about the new job offer for two days, then I said yes on the third day because the offer would pay more salary, plus commission and I can go home anytime,” Keo said.  He quit his job by lying to his boss, saying he was going to visit his family. A few days later, a black Toyota Vigo pick-up truck fetched him, along with two friends, and they took a boat across the Mekong to Thailand.  Scams By that time, Keo realized he was being trafficked – the two men who escorted him and his friends were armed. “While on the boat, one of us … suggested that we return to Laos, but we were afraid to ask,” as the men carried guns and knives. He dared not jump. “Later, one of us suggested we call our parents – but the men said, ‘On the boat, we don’t use the telephone.’ We dared not call our parents because we were afraid of being harmed,” he said. “So, we kept quiet until we reached the Thai side.” Both Keo and Kham told RFA that they were eventually trafficked to Myawaddy Township, an area some 300 miles south of the Golden Triangle.  Kham only remembered parts of the journey, when he was made to walk for miles.  Keo told RFA Laos he was transported by a…

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Bomb kills 4, injures 11 in Shan state

Editor02 mins

Four people have died and 11 were injured in a bomb blast near a pavilion built to host water festival events in Myanmar’s eastern Shan state. Thursday morning’s explosion happened on the roadside at the entrance to Lashio, the state’s largest town, according to a rescue worker who asked not to be named for safety reasons.. “The dead bodies of four men have been found initially,” he told RFA, adding that eight men and three women were also injured. RFA is still trying to confirm their names and ages. No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing and the junta has not issued a statement on the blast. Calls  to the junta spokesperson for Shan state, Khun Thein Maung, went unanswered. Thursday marks the start of Thingyan, new year’s eve in Myanmar and the start of the country’s water festival. Many civilians have chosen not to take part this year due to the ongoing violence across the country, warnings by anti-regime militia to stay away, and a series of explosions at pavilions built by junta troops. A Yangon-based anti-junta group said it set off bombs at Thingyan pavilions in three townships and People’s Square in Yangon city center last weekend. No group claimed responsibility for blasts in Mandalay city and Mawlamyine city in Mon state, also at the weekend. No one was hurt in those bombings. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Military stymies rescue efforts at scene of Myanmar strike that killed at least 80

Editor09 mins

Efforts by workers to rescue the injured and collect the remains of mangled bodies at the scene of a junta air strike that killed at least 80 civilians in Myanmar’s northern Sagaing region have been hampered by troops in the area, sources said Wednesday. Tuesday’s air strike, in which junta aircraft bombed a crowd of hundreds attending an office opening ceremony in Kanbalu township’s Pa Zi Gyi village, is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since Myanmar’s military seized power in a February 2021 coup d’etat. Witnesses have said that it was hard to tell how many people had died in the attack because the bodies were so badly mangled by the bombs and machine gun fire. As of Wednesday afternoon, rescue workers said they had cremated 83 bodies, including 22 minors. Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government said that at least 116 people had been killed, including 81 men, 16 women, and 19 minors. Amid the carnage, the military has deployed a surveillance helicopter and stationed troops on the outskirts of Pa Zi Gyi, impeding efforts to collect body parts and bring the wounded for medical treatment, residents said. A villager who declined to be named told RFA that his 10-year-old granddaughter and two 50-year-old relatives were among the victims, but said he had been unable to locate their bodies yet. “More than 30 teenagers are still missing,” he said, adding that he is “sure they are dead.” The villager said that the military had attacked the village multiple times on Tuesday. “That’s why we could not collect all the bodies and were forced to leave them,” he said. Another resident, who identified himself as Ko Myo, claimed that rescuers trying to collect bodies are the only people left in the 100-home village, which was otherwise abandoned by inhabitants he said were left in severe psychological shock by Tuesday’s attack. “There is no one [in the village] since we have had to shelter in safe places,” he said. “We have had to let our herds of goats, cattle and chickens run free. We have left our businesses and shops behind and fled [from the village]. The situation is very bad.” Every family in the village is missing members, he said. Differing accounts The military confirmed in a statement on Tuesday evening that it had carried out a “precision” attack on Pa Zi Gyi because members of the anti-junta People Defense Force paramilitary group had gathered there and “committed terrorist acts” in the area. Junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun told the military-controlled broadcast channel MRTV that those killed in the strike were members of the PDF, not civilians, and that the large number of casualties was the result of a rebel weapons cache exploding during the operation. But a rescue worker who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns, said that was untrue. The attack on the site was deliberate and thorough, he said, beginning with a jet fighter bombing run and followed by an Mi-35 helicopter strafing the area. “When we approached the scene to rescue the injured people and collect the bodies of victims in the afternoon, [the military] launched another attack,” he said. “So, we can say they attacked three times.” In this April 11, 2023 image grab from a video, a destroyed building structure is seen following Myanmar junta shelling and air strikes on Pa Zi Gyi village, Kanbalu township, Sagaing region. Credit: Citizen journalist Three rescuers were killed during the third attack, the rescue worker said. “There is little we can do and the situation has become extremely difficult,” he added, describing the state of the village’s residents as “panic-stricken.” An official from the Kanbalu township PDF also disputed Zaw Min Tun’s description of the attack, telling RFA that “whenever the junta forces attack civilians, they blame others.” “On the ground, we know best whether [the victims were] PDF members or not,” he said. “There were no PDF members among the victims.” Seeking accountability High Court lawyer Kyi Myint said attacks like Tuesday’s air strike constitute “high treason” in Myanmar and “war crimes” according to international law. “This army is formed by public funds to protect the people, not to kill them,” he said. “Now, they have committed high treason because they are killing people using the funds provided to protect the people.” “According to international law, if a government kills its own people, the perpetrators shall be sent to the International Criminal Court to be prosecuted,” he added. Tuesday’s attack prompted condemnation from around the globe, including from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, as well as several Western governments and human rights organizations. Vedant Patel, the principal deputy spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said the strike and other violent attacks “further underscore the regime’s disregard for human life and its responsibility for the dire political and humanitarian crisis in Burma” since the coup. In a statement, he said that the United States wants the junta to end violence, allow unhindered humanitarian access, and to respect the democratic aspirations of the people of Myanmar. Residents of Pa Zi Gyi village and democracy activists have called for an arms and aviation fuel embargo on the junta to end its use of air strikes in the conflict. Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.

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Brazilian kickboxer granted Cambodian citizenship after promoting national sport

Editor05 mins

At Prime Minister Hun Sen’s behest, Cambodia has granted a Brazilian kickboxer and his wife citizenship for promoting Kun Khmer, the national sport, in the latest development in a controversy with Thailand, which calls the sport Muay Thai. Hun Sen also gave a U.S.$20,000 sponsorship to Thiago Teixeira, 34, who with his wife Roma Maria Rozanska-Steffen, an American citizen, became naturalized Cambodian citizens by King Norodom Sihamoni through a royal decree dated April 11, the Phnom Penh Post reported. The announcement came after the World Muay Thai Organization, or WMO, stripped Teixeira of a middleweight title that he won at the Apex Fight Series on April 1 in Germany, during which he waved Cambodia’s flag. Teixeira had said he wanted to represent Kun Khmer instead of being a Muay Thai fighter, despite training in the Thai sport for years. The two martial art forms — the most popular sports in their respective countries — are nearly identical and involve punching, kneeing and kicking opponents. But Cambodians argue that the sport originated from their culture, while Thais say it belongs to them. Cambodia has removed Muay Thai from a list of sports included in this year’s Southeast Asia Games, replacing it with Kun Khmer, amid a larger push for the national sport to gain international recognition. The biennial sports event will be held in the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh on May 5-17. Political ploy? Critics said the prime minister was using the issue to try to increase his popularity among Cambodian voters ahead of July’s general election. Legal expert Vorn Chan Lout said Cambodia should be extra cautious before granting citizenship to foreigners because the law requires them to live in the country for three years and understand its culture to be eligible.  “Politicians are smart to take advantage of events, but the most important thing is the government needs to have a long-term vision in order to pay gratitude to all athletes,” he said. Cambodia’s Citizenship Law allows foreigners to acquire citizenship through marriage and naturalization, though they must stay in the Southeast Asian nation for three years.  Am Sam Ath of Licadho said Hun Sen’s government should support Cambodia’s home-grown martial arts athletes rather than foreign ones.   “I urge the government to pay attention to Kun Khmer and to encourage athletes with sufficient training so they are able to fight,” he said.  Cambodian kickboxers have complained that they are underpaid in the sport. Veteran Kun Khmer fighter Vong Noy said he stopped fighting because his earnings from the sport were not enough to support his family or pay medical bills for injuries he sustained during fights.  “I stopped fighting now because I have been fighting for many years,” he wrote on Facebook. “I got famous, but I am facing financial issues, and I’m afraid that I will become disabled and not make enough money to raise my children.”  RFA could not reach Teixeira for comment, but he told local media during a press conference in Phnom Penh after signing a contract with the World Champion Kun Khmer Club, that he already considered Cambodia his home and he would help promote Kun Khmer to the rest of the world.  Translated by Samean Yun for RFA Khmer. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.

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