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Category: World

Charges against Chinese citizens’ movement leader Xu Zhiyong ‘trumped up’: lawyers

Editor08 mins

Detained democracy activist Xu Zhiyong will stand trial for subversion in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong on June 22, lawyers and a rights group said on Friday. “Linyi Intermediate People’s Court has decided that Xu Zhiyong’s case will be heard in Courtroom No. 3 of the Linshu County People’s Court at 9:00 am next Wednesday,” the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said via its website and Twitter account, citing defense attorney Zhang Lei. Xu, who has already served jail time for launching the New Citizens’ Movement for greater official accountability, was detained in early 2020 and held on suspicion of “subversion of state power” alongside Ding and other activists who held a dinner gathering in the southeastern port city of Xiamen on Dec. 13, 2019. Xu’s pretrial conference was held on Friday, with that of human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi scheduled for Monday, lawyers told RFA, citing a document issued by Shandong’s Linyi Intermediate People’s Court. Both men were held incommunicado, denied permission to meet with either family members or a lawyer for two years, under “residential surveillance at a designated location” (RSDL) and criminal detention. They haven’t been seen or heard from since their indictments in August 2021. Trumped-up charges U.S.-based rights lawyer Wu Shaoping said the court has indicated that Xu and Ding will be tried separately. “According to the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Law, the two cases should be tried together, because they both resulted from the defendants attending the Xiamen gathering,” Wu told RFA. “I believe that most of the evidence in their cases is the same,” he said, questioning whether the two men would receive a fair trial, saying that the defense attorneys had been pressured into removing large amounts of “illegal” evidence from their case files in an impossibly short amount of time. “Really, the authorities just want to go through the motions and push this complicated case through a quick trial,” Wu said. Rights lawyer Wang Yu said Xu and Ding are being tried on trumped-up charges. “These are trumped-up charges, and … a lot of people in China want to hear the facts of the case … but the facts will only be established if there is a joint trial,” she said. CHRD had earlier called for Xu and Ding’s immediate and unconditional release, and for an independent investigation into their accounts of torture while in detention. “Xu and Ding have told their lawyers that Chinese authorities subjected them to torture and other ill-treatment,” the group said in a statement on its website. “CHRD reiterates its appeal to the UN experts to urge the [Chinese] government … to launch a prompt and impartial investigation of police officers and/or other state actors accused of subjecting Xu Zhiyong, Ding Jiaxi, and others to torture, and prosecute any individuals who have been found to have violated Chinese law and international law,” it said. Torture details Meanwhile, the Linyi municipal prosecutor’s office has moved ahead with the trial of Xu’s partner, the rights activist Li Qiaochu for “incitement to subvert state power.” The case against Li rests on claims that she wrote and edited Xu’s personal blog and uploaded articles he wrote there. Li, who was recently given the Cao Shunli Memorial Award for her rights activism, was initially detained on Feb. 6, 2021 on suspicion of “subversion of state power,” and held at the Linyi Detention Center, then at a psychiatric facility. Her detention came after she posted details of torture allegations by Xu and Ding. U.S.-based lawyer Teng Biao said that a documentary about Xu’s political activism, made by fellow activist and poet Chen Jiaping, will soon be available outside China. “It documents the whole of Xu Zhiyong’s civil rights protection movement … including many activities before he was imprisoned in 2013 and an interview after he was released from prison in 2017,” Teng told RFA. “Chen Jiaping, the director of the film, was arrested by the Chinese police for a period of time because of the film.” “Given that Xu Zhiyong’s pretrial conference is today, we wanted to let more people know what Xu Zhiyong did,” he said. Teng added: “Xu Zhiyong is a human rights lawyer and a legal scholar who played a very, very important role in the Chinese human rights movement by civil society. He was sentenced to 4 years in prison from 2013 to 2017. Now he is facing trial.” “A lot of citizens have come together in a very difficult and dangerous situation to campaign for basic human rights and the rule of law in China,” Teng said. Xu has never advocated violence, and has paid a very heavy price for advocating for his personal ideals, he said. “This current charge of subversion of state power is totally a case of political persecution … he didn’t commit any crime at all, of course he didn’t,” Teng said. “He is respected and followed by many people.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Taiwan boosts advanced chip plans, warns of high-tech fallout if China invades

Editor09 mins

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said on Friday it would join the race to make next-generation 2-nanometer chips by 2025, amid growing saber-rattling from China. The company said it would start volume production of the low-energy advanced chips within the next three years. Samsung and Intel have made similar announcements in recent months. “We are living in a rapidly changing, supercharged, digital world where demand for computational power and energy efficiency is growing faster than ever before, creating unprecedented opportunities and challenges for the semiconductor industry,” TSMC CEO C.C. Wei told the North America Technology Symposium. TSMC launched the 5nm process in 2020 and is scheduled to start commercial production of the 3nm process later this year in Tainan. The first 2-nm plant will be built in Hsinchu, with production to expand later to Taichung, the island’s Central News Agency reported on Friday. The announcement came after Taiwan’s chief trade negotiator John Deng warned that a potential Chinese invasion — increasingly threatened by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) — would lead to a global shortage of semiconductor chips. “The disruption to international supply chains; disruption on the international economic order; and the chance to grow would be much, much (more) significant than [the current shortage],” Deng told Reuters at a World Trade Organization (WTO) meeting in Geneva this week. “There would be a worldwide shortage of supply.” ‘Special operation’ fears Taiwan dominates the global market for the most advanced chips, with exports totaling U.S.$118 billion last year, Reuters reported, quoting Deng as saying he hopes to decrease the 40 percent share of the island’s exports that are currently being sold to China. While Taiwan has never been governed by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, and its 23 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or democratic way of life, Beijing insists the island is part of its territory. Taiwan has raised its alert level since Russia invaded Ukraine, amid concerns that CCP leader Xi Jinping could use an invasion of the democratic island to boost flagging political support that has been dented by growing confrontation with the United States and draconian zero-COVID restrictions at home. Xi recently signed a directive allowing “non-war” uses of the military, prompting concerns that Beijing may be gearing up to invade the democratic island of Taiwan under the guise of a “special operation” not classified as war. “One interpretation is that, in doing this, Xi Jinping is copying Putin’s designation of the Ukraine war as a ‘special military operation’,” U.S.-based current affairs commentator Xia Yeliang told RFA. “Xi Jinping … wants to surpass Mao Zedong, and in doing that, he doesn’t think anyone is as good as him, not even Deng Xiaoping,” Xia said.  Collective leadership He said Xi is under huge political pressure from within party ranks, citing media reports and credible rumors from high-ranking sources within the CCP.”How’s he going to do that? Economically, the situation is already better than under Mao. So he means to liberate Taiwan, and fulfill Mao’s wish, the task that he was unable to complete himself.” “A lot of people don’t trust Xi and worry that he’s going to get China into trouble … they could replace him with a system of collective leadership. So what does Xi do in response? He tries to create an atmosphere of fear, threatening to go to war, that if the U.S. does this or that, we’ll make our move,” Xia said. “Xi Jinping wants to manufacture an external crisis; a sense that if we don’t invade Taiwan now, then the opportunity will be lost, so we have to move now. He wants everyone to support him as chairman of the Central Military Commission [ahead of] the CCP 20th National Congress,” he said. Tseng Chih-Chao, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan’s Chung-hwa Institution for Economic Research, said global shortages of a particular kind of chip have already put a spanner in the works of automakers around the world, and that TSMC currently holds a 90-percent global market share in advanced chips. “When we look at their main customers like Apple’s Nvidia chips, they are the most advanced chip manufacturers in the world,” Tseng said.  “Without TSMC, the entire high-tech industry around the world would cease to function, including all of the chips that go into iPhones or Apple computers,” he said. “Most importantly, there are no alternative suppliers who can make these chips anywhere in the world right now.” “If China launched an attack, it could cause serious damage in a very short period of time, that would be very difficult to rebuild, especially after the [likely] loss of technology, equipment and talent,” Tseng said. “So of course [Deng] was going to say this to the United States and other Western countries.” Taiwan’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou said the island welcomed U.S. support, but stood ready to defend itself. “In the face continued military expansion and provocation from China, Taiwan has a high degree of determination and capability to defend itself,” Ou said on June 16. “[Our] government will continue to strengthen self-defense capabilities and asymmetric combat capabilities, maintain national security with solid national defense, and deepen Taiwan-US ties.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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ASEAN Special Envoy won’t meet Suu Kyi during Myanmar visit

Editor07 mins

ASEAN Special Envoy Prak Sokhonn will not be allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi on his second visit to Myanmar, military council spokesman Gen. Zaw Min Tun told RFA. The National League for Democracy leader and State Counsellor has been detained since the Feb.1, 2021 coup. Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 11 years in jail on 19 counts and faces further charges that could keep her in prison for as long as 100 years. When asked about possible meetings with Suu Kyi, and former Myanmar president Win Myint, the spokesman said the ASEAN Special Envoy was only scheduled to meet with ethnic armed groups currently holding peace talks with the junta. “At this time, meeting with the appropriate and deserving people will be on schedule,” he said. “The people who deserve to be met do not include those who are being prosecuted and are on trial.” Sokhonn, who is also Cambodia’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, is scheduled to make his second visit to Myanmar as ASEAN Special Envoy on June 29 and 30. The focus of his visit will be the urgent need for humanitarian assistance in Myanmar but ASEAN leaders, including Cambodia’s Prime Minister, have called for meetings with Suu Kyi and officials from the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), considering talks with them to be key to resolving the conflict. The military council scheduled meetings between Sokhonn and some members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) during the Special Envoy’s first visit in March this year but cancelled meetings with some NLD members due to political opposition from NLD MPs who have left the country. Political analyst Ye Tun said the trip could not be considered a success if the ASEAN Special Envoy was not allowed to meet with Suu Kyi at a time when the situation in Myanmar is deteriorating. “He would be even more disappointed if he was not allowed to meet with Aung San Suu Kyi and if the military does not comply the Cambodian Prime Minister’s request not to impose the death penalty on former NLD MP Phyoe Zeya Thaw, and others,” he said. “Cambodia stands by the pressure being applied by ASEAN. If it comes to nothing during the trip the feeling will be that the Special Envoy cannot do anything effectively in his visit.” A file photo of Cambodian Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who serves as ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar. CREDIT: AFP Cambodia is the current chair of ASEAN and, in a call with Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on May 1, Prime Minister Hun Sen urged Myanmar’s junta chief to allow the special envoy to meet with Suu Kyi. He also asked the military leader to take further steps to implement the five-point consensus for Myanmar, reached with ASEAN’s foreign ministers in April 2021. Failure to achieve all the points in the consensus in more than a year has led to growing criticism at home and abroad and Sokhonn will use his second visit to focus on the sticking points in the agreement. Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah has spoken up in global summits, calling for specific talks between the Special Envoy, Suu Kyi and NUG leaders, arguing that the five-point consensus includes an agreement to hold a dialogue with all stakeholders in Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi will spend her 77th birthday on June 19 in detention. During her 34-year political career she has been repeatedly arrested and prosecuted by successive military governments, spending 17 of her birthdays in detention. Pro-democracy activists are expected to mark the Nobel Laureate’s birthday on Sunday with nationwide protests, according to Crisis24. “The largest protests will probably occur outside government buildings and in other popular protest sites, such as public squares, in major cities like Yangon and Mandalay. Hundreds to thousands of people will probably participate in larger demonstrations,” the global security consultancy said in an alert on Thursday. Authorities are likely to step up security, causing disruption to transport and businesses, it said. Crisis24 also warned of the likelihood of clashes between protestors and security forces and the risk of explosions targeting security personnel and facilities, both in the countryside and in cities including Yangon, Mandalay, and Naypyidaw.

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UK investigates Vietnamese billionaire’s funding of Oxford University college

Editor04 mins

The British government is investigating a £155 million (U.S.$191 million) grant to Oxford University’s Linacre college by a Vietnamese billionaire. Education Minister Michelle Donelan told the House of Commons that the ministry would give an update in the next few days after looking into the grant from VietJet founder Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Donelan’s comments came in response to questions from a fellow Tory MP as the House of Commons considered the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill on Monday, British media reported. Conservative MP Julian Lewis asked Donelan whether she was concerned at conditions set by the Vietnamese billionaire such as renaming Linacre ‘Thao College,’ considering Vietnam is a country where people seldom enjoy freedom of speech Dr. Nguyen Quang A, co-founder and former director of Vietnam’s Institute of Development Studies, told RFA businesses that want to prosper in countries such as Vietnam need to have a good relationship with the government. “In Vietnam and China officials use political power to make money from citizens and business owners. The relationship between businesses and the government is the crystallization of corruption. One party uses money to gain political influence and to enrich themselves while the official uses his power to enrich himself. That is corruption. This relationship is reciprocal,” he said. Responding to RFA’s questions by text, human rights activist Nguyen Thi Hai Hieu, a fifth-year student studying in the UK, said the British government’s suspicions were completely justified. She said she agreed with the decision to investigate the donation, adding that she suspects it to be a money-laundering case involving the Vietnamese government. Hieu said she believed that investing in colleges or supporting scholarships for Vietnamese students was a good idea but not necessary even though she considered the British education system to be better than Vietnam’s. She said Vietnam should prioritize investment in its own education system because there are many disadvantaged areas in the country, where equipment and facilities in schools are still limited. Thao signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Linacre College on October 31, 2021. After signing the MoU and receiving the first £50 million of the agreed funding, Linacre College said it would approach the Privy Council, a group of politicians who advise the Queen, to ask to change the school’s name to Thao College. Critics say that changing the school’s name would lose the history of the collage, named after Thomas Linacre, a British scholar, humanities researcher and physician. Linacre used to treat ‘Utopia’ author Sir Thomas More, along with Cardinal Wolsey, chief advisor to King Henry VIII.

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Justice for Myanmar: Vietnamese telco helps junta track deserters

Editor06 mins

Viettel has been helping Myanmar’s junta track civilians and military deserters, according to Justice for Myanmar (JFM), which called for immediate sanctions against Viettel Global Investment (VGI), a unit of Vietnam’s largest mobile carrier. Viettel is owned by Vietnam’s defense ministry and VGI holds a stake in Telecom International Myanmar, which runs mobile company Mytel. “Mytel … is a key pillar in the Myanmar military’s business network, providing revenue, technology and surveillance capabilities,” JFM said in a news release. The activist group said leaked documents show Mytel has been working with military commanders to offer customized phone numbers to personnel that include their ID number. Over four years Mytel has given hundreds of thousands of free SIM cards to military personnel, as well as civil servants and members of the former National League for Democracy government, enabling the military to monitor them, Justice for Myanmar said. “Mytel is a product of the Myanmar military’s systemic corruption, supporting war criminals including Min Aung Hlaing and the illegal military junta that he is heading, with revenue, technology and intelligence,” Justice for Myanmar spokesperson Yadanar Maung told RFA by email. Analysis shows that Myanmar’s military is set to earn more than U.S.$700 million from Mytel over 10 years, using the profits to fund continued war crimes and crimes against humanity, the report said.  The spokesperson said the Vietnamese military also stands to benefit from its stake in Mytel’s parent company through access to data military infrastructure, including bases for mobile phone towers and the Myanmar military’s fiber optic cable network. “In seeking profits, military generals have handed the Vietnam Ministry of National Defence unprecedented access to military secrets, including personnel data and access to military bases. This is data that was not even available to the previous National League for Democracy-led government or the parliament that the military has attempted to dispose of. It includes the names, ranks and ID of personnel at a national level, organized by military base, and the personal call data of the majority of Myanmar military personnel,” Maung said. “While Vietnam is an ally of Myanmar’s militaristic regime, Viettel and the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam can use and misuse this data if desired, even in their own national interest,” Yadanar Maung said. Justice for Myanmar called for immediate targeted sanctions against Mytel owner Telecom International Myanmar as well as Viettel Global Investment. It also called for an immediate boycott of Mytel to stop money flowing into the pockets of the military. RFA emailed Viettel to ask for their comments on the report but did not immediately receive a response. Following the military coup in February last year, many soldiers and police defected to join the civil disobedience campaign. JFM claimed they were still being monitored by military authorities with the help of Mytel’s sim cards. JFM said Mytel’s profits should not be used by Myanmar’s military to buy weapons and equipment to target the opposition but should be used to serve the interests of the people. In December 2020, Justice for Myanmar released documents it said showed that Viettel was supporting the modernization of Myanmar’s military through technology transfers and training, to improve the technical capacity of the military.  Therefore, “Viettel and the Ministry of National Defense of Vietnam are contributing to military operations in ethnic Myanmar areas and supporting and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity,” JFM said. More than 1,900 people including children have been killed by the military, and more than 11,000 people have been detained and tortured, JFM said, citing the Myanmar Association for the Support of Political Prisoners.

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Britain investigates Vietnamese billionaire’s funding of Oxford University college

Editor04 mins

The British government is investigating a £155 million (U.S.$191 million) grant to Oxford University’s Linacre college by a Vietnamese billionaire. Education Minister Michelle Donelan told the House of Commons that the ministry would give an update in the next few days after looking into the grant from VietJet founder Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao. Donelan’s comments came in response to questions from a fellow Tory MP as the House of Commons considered the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill on Monday, British media reported. Conservative MP Julian Lewis asked Donelan whether she was concerned at conditions set by the Vietnamese billionaire such as renaming Linacre ‘Thao College,’ considering Vietnam is a country where people seldom enjoy freedom of speech Dr. Nguyen Quang A, co-founder and former director of Vietnam’s Institute of Development Studies, told RFA businesses that want to prosper in countries such as Vietnam need to have a good relationship with the government. “In Vietnam and China officials use political power to make money from citizens and business owners. The relationship between businesses and the government is the crystallization of corruption. One party uses money to gain political influence and to enrich themselves while the official uses his power to enrich himself. That is corruption. This relationship is reciprocal,” he said. Responding to RFA’s questions by text, human rights activist Nguyen Thi Hai Hieu, a fifth-year student studying in the UK, said the British government’s suspicions were completely justified. She said she agreed with the decision to investigate the donation, adding that she suspects it to be a money-laundering case involving the Vietnamese government. Hieu said she believed that investing in colleges or supporting scholarships for Vietnamese students was a good idea but not necessary even though she considered the British education system to be better than Vietnam’s. She said Vietnam should prioritize investment in its own education system because there are many disadvantaged areas in the country, where equipment and facilities in schools are still limited. Thao signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Linacre College on October 31, 2021. After signing the MoU and receiving the first £50 million of the agreed funding, Linacre College said it would approach the Privy Council, a group of politicians who advise the Queen, to ask to change the school’s name to Thao College. Critics say that changing the school’s name would lose the history of the collage, named after Thomas Linacre, a British scholar, humanities researcher and physician. Linacre used to treat ‘Utopia’ author Sir Thomas More, along with Cardinal Wolsey, chief advisor to King Henry VIII.

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Political prisoner executions would backfire on Myanmar junta, say analysts

Editor010 mins

As talk that Myanmar’s junta was set to hang veteran democracy activist Ko Jimmy and three other men went viral on social media Thursday, other junta opponents and analysts said carrying out the executions would backfire against the military regime that has ruled the country since a coup last year. The rumored executions at dawn Thursday did not take place, but critics said carrying out death penalties handed down after brief, closed trials on terrorism charges would bring more international opprobrium and galvanize domestic opposition against the unpopular junta. “There will be calls for more pressure against the junta in the international arena, and the junta will find it more difficult to impose their rule on young people across the country,” Aung Moe Zaw, chairman of the Democratic Party for New Society, told RFA. “I think more people will be out on the streets,” he added. On June 3, Ko Jimmy, lawmaker Phyo Zeyar Thaw of the National League for Democracy party that was banned after the military overthrew the country’s elected government on Feb. 1, 2021, and two other men lost appeals of their death sentences. The junta rejected the possibility of a pardon for the condemned men. Ko Jimmy, whose real name is Kyaw Min Yu, was a prominent leader of the pro-democracy 88 Generation Students Group who fought military rule three decades ago. The 53-year-old activist was arrested in October after spending eight months in hiding and was convicted by a military tribunal in January under the Counter-Terrorism Law. He was accused of contacting the National Unity Government (NUG), and People’s Defense Force (PDF), an opposition coalition and militia network formed by politicians ousted in the Feb. 1 coup that the junta has declared terrorist organizations. In September, the NUG declared a nationwide state of emergency and called for open rebellion against junta rule, prompting an escalation of attacks on military targets by various allied pro-democracy militias and ethnic armed groups. Myanmar democracy activist Ko Jimmy (L) and former Myanmar lawmaker Phyo Zeya Thaw (R) in a combination photo created on June 3, 2022. Credit: AFP/Myanmar’s Military Information Team First judicial execution since 1988 Ko Jimmy was also accused of advising local militia groups in Yangon and ordering PDF groups to attack police, military targets, and government offices, and asking the NUG to buy a 3D printer to produce weapons for local PDFs. The four death sentences, as well 111 others that have been handed down by junta courts between the military’s 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. An appeal against carrying out what would be the first judicial execution in Myanmar since 1988 came from Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who wrote junta leader Sen. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing on June 10, urging him to “reconsider the sentences and refrain from carrying out the death sentences.” If carried out, the executions “would trigger a very strong and widespread negative reaction from the international community” and hurt efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Myanmar, wrote Hun Sen, in his capacity as 2022 rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member. Thiha Win Tin, a former member of the All Burma Federation of Students’ Unions, Said plans to execute the four would spark an angry reaction from many quarters of society which don’t accept the legitimacy of the junta or the military tribunals that meted out the death penalty. “This is not a death penalty. They were simply arrested and ordered to be killed,” he said. “It’s not just Phyo Zeyar Thaw and Ko Jimmy. Many of our comrades have been killed during interrogations, some killed on the streets–unarmed and peaceful protesters arrested late in the night,” added Thiha Win Tin. Hatred of army will grow Mar Kee (also known as Kyaw Kyaw Htwe), a political ally of Ko Jimmy since the 1980s, said “the consequences will not be good” if the executions were carried out. “There were people in the country who accepted Jimmy and Zeyar Thaw and their work, and there were those who didn’t. Even those who didn’t accept them, as well as those in the middle, would be outraged if the death penalty were to be imposed on people for their political beliefs,” he told RFA. “I think the hatred against [the army] will grow.” Local anti-junta PDFs groups and other regime opponents have issued a series of warnings in recent days that they would retaliate if Ko Jimmy, Phyo Zeyar Thaw and the others were put to death. Military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, at a conference in Naypyidaw Thursday, defended the planned executions as a necessary measure by a sovereign country, but did not say when they would take place. “Innocent people lost their lives because of these two’s encouragement [of anti-junta militias],” he said. “I just said innocent people. I am not talking about security personnel.” “At least 50 lives were lost thanks to their support. So how can you say it’s not fair?” said Zaw Min Tun. The junta has not provided evidence to support the allegations, and the spokesman did not elaborate. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Thai-based advocacy group, said that 1,958 people have been killed and 14,139 anti-regime activists across the country have been arrested in more than 16 months since the military coup. Of those, 11,081 are still in custody.   Political analyst Sai Kyi Zin Soe said no one in Myanmar would believe in the multi-party elections the military has promised to hold in 2023 if the executions were carried out. “When the elections are held in 2023, these guys, who were supposed to be contesting the elections but have been executed unfairly, would be absent,” he told RFA….

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Migration from Myanmar to Thailand surges amid fighting, COVID concerns

Editor08 mins

The number of migrants crossing illegally from Myanmar to Thailand has surged in recent months as residents of regions near the border flee fighting with government troops and outbreaks of COVID-19, sources say. Nearly 20,000 migrants trying to cross the border were arrested by Thai police during the last five months alone, with many discovered in life-threatening situations, according to the Foundation for Education and Development, a Thai-based NGO. Some had been left behind by traffickers in caves or forest areas near the border, foundation spokesman Min Oo said in a statement. “Sometimes Thai police officers would find them after receiving tips from local residents, and the migrants would then sometimes try to escape,” he said. “Just the other day, a car full of Myanmar migrants fell off the road into an abyss. Also, two women died of suffocation after being left in a crowded car in the jungle. There have been shootings on the road as well,” he said. “The situation is very bad.” The number of Myanmar migrants detained by Thai police is growing day by day, with many now facing shortages of food and shelter, Min Oo said. Most were forced to flee their homes in Myanmar’s Sagaing, Magway and Mandalay regions and Karen and Kayah states following the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup that overthrew civilian rule, he added. Others trying to cross have been looking for work after factories in Myanmar shut down due to fighting and the spread of COVID-19 in the military-ruled country, said Thida Win, a resident of Magway region’s Yayzagyo township now working at a garment factory in Thailand after crossing the border in April. “Most of the factories in Myanmar were closed because of COVID and the coup, and as a result many people were left without jobs. So instead of just sitting at home they took loans and came to Thailand to work,” she said. “Because we are here illegally, we don’t dare go out except to go to work and then return home. I send every penny I earn back to my sisters, and when my debt is paid, I will call my brother and sister here to work too, as they have no jobs where they live,” she said. Aung Ko Win, a second-year university student from Sagaing who is currently looking for work in a small Thai border town, said people pay between 20,000 and 30,000 baht ($571.59 to $857.39) if they want to work illegally in Thailand. “We are suffering from the war in Sagaing, so I left my family and came to Thailand when it became difficult to earn a living at home, and after passing through many checkpoints on the way, I got here and am now staying with a friend,” he said. “I have no idea where to find a job. I’ll have to take any kind of work that comes by. All of this is for the sake of my family.” Most illegal migrants in Thailand work in the construction and fishing industries or in factories, with others working as house maids or as hired hands in farming, sources say. They can earn between 10,000 and 15,000 baht a month, but because they work illegally they have no insurance or labor rights. Reached for comment, Adisorn Kerdphol — an official with the Migrant Workers Group in Thailand — told RFA he has raised the issue of the detained migrant workers with the Thai government, while a staff member of the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok dealing with migrant workers told RFA that the Thai government would deport the migrant workers after their release from jail. Speaking to RFA on Thursday, Pairote Chotikasathien, the director general of the Thai Ministry of Labor’s Department of Employment, said that Thailand has since January brought Myanmar workers into the country legally to fill labor shortages in industry and the fishing sector. “As for the illegal workers, we will propose to the government that they have them registered, hopefully by late June or sometime next month,” he said. Meanwhile, workers coming into Thailand illegally will still be detained and repatriated by the same route through which they entered. And though immigration law stipulates that an illegal migrant may be jailed for up to two years and fined 20,000 baht, they are normally just sent home, he said. The International Labor Organization said in a 2021 report that around 1.6 million people were unemployed in Myanmar following the spread of COVID and the military coup, with 25 million — more than half the country’s population — possibly facing famine by the end of 2022. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Additional reporting by Pimuk Rakkanam in Bangkok. Written in English by Paul Eckert and Richard Finney.

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Split between opposition leaders could solidify Hun Sen’s rule in Cambodia

Editor011 mins

The split between Cambodian opposition leaders Kem Sokha and Sam Rainsy could help Prime Minister Hun Sen and his ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) hold power, sources in the country told RFA. Kem Sokha, while on trial Wednesday on unsubstantiated charges of treason, declared that his alliance with his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) co-founder Sam Rainsy was over, seemingly confirming rumors that the country’s top opposition partnership of the past decade had ended. Sam Rainsy, who has been living in self-imposed exile in France since 2015, attributed Kem Sokha’s statement to the legal pressure he faces and said that there was no change in their relationship. Such a split, if genuine, could help the CPP in general elections next year, and all but ensure a smooth transition of power from Hun Sen to his son, Han Manet, exiled political analyst Kim Sok told RFA’s Khmer Service. Hun Sen has ruled the country since 1985. “Hun Sen will transfer power to his son because he has seen sign of split between the opposition leaders,” he said. Mey Chandara, coordinator for the Phnom Penh-based Cambodia Youth Network, told RFA that the split will cause a rift in supporters of the opposition at a time when they should be unified to challenge the ruling party. “We don’t want to see them separate. We want the opposition’s voices to demand justice in the upcoming election,” he said. Sam Rainsy founded the Candlelight Party under a different name in 1995. In 2012, supporters from his party and Kem Sokha’s Human Rights party merged to form the CNRP, which was dissolved by Cambodia’s Supreme Court five years later after it performed well in the country’s 2017 communal elections. Candlelight, as a separate party from the CNRP, was technically not affected by the ban and has risen to become the largest opposition party in the country. Sam Rainsy has thrown his support behind Candlelight, whereas Kem Sokha believes that its participation in what he viewed as a compromised election earlier this month only serves the CPP and its claims of winning the elections in a landslide. Seng Sary, a political analyst, said the divide between the two opposition leaders was real, and not initiated for strategic purposes. He said that the split was initiated by Kem Sokha, who did not support the opposition Candlelight Party in this year’s local commune elections.  CPP spokesman Chhim Phalvorun dismissed the idea that the CPP would benefit from the split between Sam Rainsy and Kem Sokha. CPP will stay in power because it has the support of the people, he said. “When a wife and husband get a divorce, it is their issue. It has nothing to do with outsiders,” he said. If the rift in the opposition can be described as a divorce, it is not an amicable one, at least as far as Kem Sokha’s daughter, Kem Monovithya, is concerned. She wrote scathing criticism of Sam Rainsy on her Facebook account, accusing him of allowing Hun Sen and the CCP to use him to attack her father. “We think the ruling party wants to destroy the opposition party as a whole, especially the [Cambodia] National Rescue Party,” she wrote. “[The CPP] is doing two things. It is destroying Sam Rainsy through threats to arrest him, so he fled. At the same time, it is destroying Kem Sokha by using Sam Rainsy’s hands to attack him because he hasn’t fled,” Kem Monovithya wrote. “We think the ruling party and Sam Rainsy’s faction think that if Kem Sokha dares to defend himself or express any different ideas [from Sam Rainsy’s], his popularity will decline,” she said.   Kem Sokha is now more popular than when he started the Human Rights Party in 2007, Kem Monovithya added. “Kem Sokha has been the main leader since 2007, so we will continue our courage and speak the truth, even if the truth hurts Sam Rainsy’s faction or the ruling party,” she said. “In simple language, we will fight both.” Activist yet to meet lawyer Cambodian American activist Theary Seng, who on Tuesday was arrested while she protested a mass trial that convicted her and more than 50 other democracy advocates for their associations with the CNRP, has still not been allowed to meet with her lawyer in prison. By forbidding him to meet with his client, the lawyer, Choung Choy Ngy, told RFA that Phnom Penh’s Prey Sar Prison was breaking Cambodian law, which specify that prisoners be allowed to meet with legal counsel to discuss appeals. He said he was preparing a complaint to the Ministry of Interior, seeking intervention from Minister Sar Keng to allow him to meet Theary Seng. “Theary Seng wasn’t at the announcement of the court verdict, so she doesn’t [officially] know what the verdict is, so my intention was to inform her and explain her rights to appeal,” Choung Choy Ngy said. “I am sad that prison officials didn’t allow me to meet her.” Prison Department spokesman Nuth Savna told RFA that officials have designated her as a special case, so they have worked to ensure her safety, so for the time being the prison will not allow visitors. “We didn’t allow the visit due to safety and security factors,” he said, adding that prison officials received information that there is a plan by Theary Seng supporters to protest in front of the prison. The prison should allow her to meet with her lawyer, otherwise it is a violation of Theary Seng’s rights, Am Sam Ath of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights told RFA.  The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply concerned” about Tuesday’s verdict in a statement published Wednesday evening. “The sentencing of these opposition activists, many of whom are associated with the disbanded Cambodia National Rescue Party, is the latest instance in an alarming pattern of threats, intimidation, and persecution of opposition political leaders and parties. These actions undermine multiparty democracy and the rule of law,” department…

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Family of young Tibetan still in the dark 6 months after his arbitrary arrest

Editor04 mins

Chinese authorities arrested a young Tibetan language activist six months ago, and his whereabouts remain unknown, even to his family, sources in Tibet told RFA. Lodoe, son of Rigzin, is a university graduate in his 30s from Seshul county (in Chinese Shiqu), part of the Garze (Ganzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan province. As he is fluent in both Chinese and Tibetan, the government offered him a job, which he turned down to advocate for the preservation of the Tibetan language. “Lodoe was arrested unexpectedly by the Chinese authorities six months ago from Seshul County and taken to Chengdu, [Sichuan’s capital],” a Tibetan source in Tibet told RFA’s Tibetan Service, on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Since then, his whereabouts and condition are unknown. His family has learned from some sources that he will be convicted soon, but they still don’t know where exactly he is being detained at the moment — whether in a prison or a detention center,” the source said. The arrest of Lodoe is part of a larger crackdown by the Chinese government on Tibetan writers, intellectuals and cultural leaders. Authorities arbitrarily imprison them for long periods of time in undisclosed locations, without revealing the exact charges or the dates of their sentences to their families, sources said. “Usually officials from a respective county will come and take individuals away to detention,” the source said. “However, this time Chinese officials from Sichuan province came to arrest Lodoe. Many believe that Lodoe was arrested for having communicated with people in exile and also for advocating for Tibetan language rights. Chinese officials have still not cited any reasons for his arrest,” the source added. “We still don’t know the exact month and date of his arrest [either].” Chinese authorities have frequently detained Tibetan writers and artists who promote Tibetan national identity and culture — with many sentenced to lengthy prison terms — following region-wide protests of Chinese rule that swept Tibet and Tibetan areas in western provinces of China in 2008. Language rights have become a particular focus for Tibetan efforts to assert national identity in recent years, with informally organized language courses typically deemed “illegal associations” and teachers subject to detention and arrest, sources say. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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