• contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Category: World

Vietnamese refugees held in Thailand say they fear being forced home

Editor07 mins

Two Vietnamese refugees held by authorities in Thailand say they fear for their safety after being visited in detention by Vietnamese embassy staff who urged them to return home, where they face charges as political activists. Nguyen Thi Thuy and Ho Nhut Hung, both members of the civil society Constitution Group promoting freedom of expression and assembly in Vietnam, had fled as refugees to Thailand in September 2018. Both had taken part in protests against proposed laws on cybersecurity and the granting of Special Economic Zones to foreign investors that rocked major cities across Vietnam four years ago, leading to mass arrests. Living on expired UN-issued refugee cards in a province north of Bangkok, Thuy and Hung were detained by Thai Royal Police on July 24, 2022, charged with “illegal immigration and residence” and sent to an Immigration Detention Center in the capital. Speaking to RFA by phone this week, Thuy said that she and Hung were visited in detention in early August by staff from Vietnam’s embassy in Bangkok who tried to persuade them to return to Vietnam. “Surprisingly, they knew my room number and my prison identification number,” Thuy said. “They told us they would create the best conditions for our repatriation, and warned us that if we did not agree and waited instead for help from the UN, we would be in trouble.” Both Thuy and Hung refused the embassy’s request, she said. “We told the embassy that we now use UN identification cards instead of Vietnamese passports, and that we would therefore wait until hearing from the UN, even if we have to die here,” she said. In February 2019, UN refugee officials issued cards with ID codes to Thuy and Hung, but the cards expired last year, Thuy said. Restricted by the COVID pandemic from visiting UN offices in person, the pair were told by phone that their cards had been renewed, but they were unable to pick them up and were still using their old cards when they were arrested, she said. Detainees held at Bangkok’s IDC have only intermittent access to water and are served food lacking nutrition, Thuy said. Her cell normally housing up to 60 women is now less crowded, though, as half of the detainees held there have been moved to other facilities, she added. Social activists in Thailand have raised funds from different sources, including Vietnamese living overseas, to help Thuy and Hung pay around 114,000 baht ($3,233) for bail, fines for illegal immigration, and charges for COVID tests, Thuy said. Release date uncertain Two weeks have now passed since Thuy and Hung were detained, but they still don’t know when they will be released, and Thuy’s calls to the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok have rung unanswered, she said. Calls seeking comment on Thuy’s and Hung’s case from Vietnam’s embassy in Thailand received no response this week, but an employee at the UNHCR office in Bangkok said they were aware of the situation and promised to report it to a senior official. Also speaking to RFA, Nguyen Hoan An — a Vietnamese social activist also living as a refugee in Thailand — said that refugees held in detention are normally freed on the same day their bail is paid. Detainees cannot be forced home if they refuse requests from their embassy to repatriate, An added. He noted however that Thai police have recently entered rented rooms without a warrant to arrest illegal immigrants, reporting falsely that the arrests took place in the street. Refugees’ requests to UNHCR and law firms for help are often handled slowly or receive no reply, An said. “We are calling on communities, media groups and especially the organizations responsible for protecting refugees to pay more attention,” An said. “We hope that they will take action quickly whenever refugees are arrested or face security risks so that they are not intimidated and extradited back to Vietnam.” In January 2019, RFA blogger Truong Duy Nhat was arrested by Vietnamese police agents in Bangkok and forced back to Vietnam just a day after submitting an application for refugee status to UNHCR. He was later taken to court and sentenced to 10 years in prison for “abusing his official position” in a purchase of real estate under Article 356 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Read More

‘I thought the police would immediately begin an investigation’: #MeToo plaintiff

Editor015 mins

A Beijing court has once more ruled against former CCTV intern Zhou Xiaoxuan in a landmark #MeToo sexual harassment case, saying there isn’t enough evidence to support her claims against state broadcaster CCTV anchor Zhu Jun. The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court rejected Zhou’s appeal on Aug. 10, upholding the original judgment of the Haidian District People’s Court in September 2021. Backed by supporters, Zhou filed a second appeal later the same day, after making an impassioned statement to the court asking some tough questions of China’s judicial and law enforcement agencies: On June 9, 2014, I was a third-year university student and 21 years old. My first internship was with CCTV’s program “Art Life.” At the time I was being sexually harassed by Zhu Jun in that dressing room, I had feelings of shame around sex, and there was no way I was going to be able to resist in the moment or call for help. I knew how powerful Zhu Jun was, so I daren’t tell any of the staff who came into the dressing room at that time what I was going through. I think what happened to me is also a common occurrence for women in higher education and in the workplace. The only difference for me was that I had a university lecturer who was willing to help and I made my report to the police with support from that lecturer, a lawyer and my roommate on the day after the incident. Both our lived experience and hard statistics tell us that very few women choose to go to the police when they have suffered sexual harassment or sexual assault. At the time I made my report to the police in 2014, they told my parents that I should withdraw it, citing Zhu Jun’s status in society. At the time the case came to court for the first time in 2020, court officials told me that it was impossible to lay hands on surveillance camera footage or written evidence supporting my case. In the 2021 judgment document, the court said the burden of proof in such cases falls on the plaintiff, and that the evidence I had supplied was insufficient. Today, this case is back on appeal, in what will probably be my last appearance in court. I have already given an account of the facts of the case to this court, so now I would like to ask the court this: how is a woman who is sexually harassed in a closed space, who hasn’t expected it, and who has no recording device on her, nor any way to fight back supposed to prove that the harassment took place? Is she just supposed to put up with it, and act like it never happened? Back when I reported this to the police four years ago, in the hope that they would help me, their first response wasn’t to interrogate the person accused of being the perpetrator. Instead, it was to travel to Wuhan two days later to talk to my parents into having me drop the case. They didn’t actually go to CCTV to talk to Zhu Jun until a week after I had filed the report, and even then they only took the simplest of statements. Four years later, as I filed my case with the court, officials refused to accept a complaint of sexual harassment, refused to call Zhu Jun in for questioning even when it was confirmed that the person who had taken me into that dressing room and the one who had been in the dressing room that day had lied to back him up. Instead, they told my parents that none of the witness statements, the surveillance footage from the corridor, my dress nor photos or me and Zhu Jun together were admissible as evidence, so I didn’t have enough evidence to support my case. I would like to ask the court what kind of evidence it would deem admissible? I didn’t know I was going to be sexually harassed, so I didn’t bring a secret recording pen on a pinhole camera. I didn’t feel able to face down Zhu Jun in the middle of CCTV headquarters, neither did I immediately cry for help. I didn’t feel able to go back to CCTV after filing my report with the police, nor to interview him myself, and I didn’t have access to the surveillance camera footage. I wasn’t able to analyze my DNA or Zhu Jun’s. I was 21, and this was the first time I had ever reported anything to the police. I didn’t even know to ask for proof of a police report or a receipt for the evidence I gave them. I want to ask those people who backed up Zhu Jun’s story why they did it. Why they even refused to describe what Zhu Jun was wearing in that dressing room that day. I want to ask the police why they went to Wuhan to talk to my parents, and why they didn’t go to find Zhu Jun until a week afterwards. I haven’t seen them once in all the times I have appeared in this courtroom. I haven’t been able to ask them anything. I don’t have the wherewithal to find my own evidence: to offer up proof of my own suffering. The university lecturer’s statement spoke of my sobs, while my roommate’s statement said I was crying that same evening. Yet they seem to have evaporated. At the age of 21, I chose to go to the police. At the age of 25, I decided to take it to court. I thought the judicial system would help me, and I believed that I had a citizen’s right to justice. I thought the police would investigate in a timely manner, take steps to preserve all the evidence, and respond to me as required by law. I believed that the court would at least understand the complexities of workplace sexual harassment, and understand the…

Read More

China’s zero-COVID curbs bring Guangdong’s manufacturing hub to its knees

Editor08 mins

The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s zero-COVID measures are forcing large numbers of private manufacturers to close in the Pearl River delta region this month, RFA has learned. Last month, Cooper Electronics, based in Guangdong’s manufacturing hub of Dongguan, announced it would close this month. Hong Kong-owned toymaker Dongguan Kaishan Toys has announced it will follow suit, while Dongguan Jingli Plastics and Electronics will suspend production on Aug. 31 after laying off all of its staff, according to ChinaToysNet. Other private businesses have told RFA they plan to furlough all staff for six months after a massive slump in new orders made it impossible for them to meet their payroll bill. The moves come as foreign-invested manufacturers are increasingly relocating to Vietnam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries, as costs continue to skyrocket in China. Financial commentator Cai Shengkun said the hollowing out of Dongguan as a manufacturing base has been a long time coming. “Dongguan used to be China’s manufacturing base, and in its heyday was the production base for products sold by the world’s largest companies,” Cai said. “During its heyday, Dongguan maintained high GDP growth for over a 20-year period … and accumulated enormous wealth.” “But now with the relocation of some industries and the continuous migration of foreign capital, there are not many high-end factories in Dongguan left,” he said. Cai said CCP leader Xi Jinping’s insistence on a zero-COVID approach, meaning individuals and entire cities can be placed under lockdown at a moment’s notice, with mandatory quarantine and testing for all, have also struck a major blow. “Rising shipping costs and the impact of the pandemic have meant that [these] industries are no longer profitable,” he said. “With shipping costs getting higher and higher, these products will no longer have any export advantage.” This photo taken on July 13, 2022 shows cargo containers stacked at Yantian port in Shenzhen in China’s southern Guangdong province. Credit: AFP Logistical challenges Kaishan Toys, established in 1998, was once one of Hong Kong’s most prestigious toy manufacturers, with more than 2,000 employees. But the company has seen a sharp drop in orders since 2021, with most toy production now outsourced to Southeast Asia. At the time of its closure announcement, just 100 employees remained. Meanwhile, Dongguan Jieying Precision Hardware Products has also announced it will close at the end of the month, citing additional costs and logistical challenges under the zero-COVID policy. Other companies are pausing operations, in the hope of making a comeback if business improves. Huizhou Wanzhisheng New Energy Technology announced a five-day furlough for most departments, citing the impact of disease control and prevention restrictions. The problem isn’t confined to Dongguan or Guangdong province, either. Shandong Guangfu Group, a private iron and steel joint venture established in 1983, suspended production on July 19, with no date for resumption given. And a technology company based in the eastern province of Anhui furloughed all of its staff from July 14 to Jan. 22, 2023. Financial analyst Guan Min said the government has failed to offer any policy incentives or financial support to private enterprises hit by the zero-COVID policy, and that this could be a deliberate choice. “This is a great opportunity for the state sector to expand, and for the private sector to shrink,” Guan said. “Private enterprises have good technology and so much equipment, which can benefit state-owned enterprises if there are mergers.” Retreat from market economics Guan said he has been warning of a total retreat from market economics under Xi for the past decade. “Based on the indicators 10 years ago, I said that only large state-owned enterprises would still be operating in China 20 years down the line,” he said. The government does appear willing to boost the property market, where a slump fueled by a massive backlog in unfinished buildings has started to affect the economy. Since Xi Jinping’s recent comment that “housing isn’t for speculation,” a number of local governments have announced preferential policies for homebuyers, encouraging rural residents to buy in cities. Homebuyers across China are withholding mortgage payments in protest at stalled construction of properties by major developers across the country until developers resume construction of pre-sold homes, local media and social media reported. Japan’s Nomura has estimated that developers have only delivered around 60 percent of homes sold before actual construction between 2013 and 2020. China’s outstanding mortgage loans rose by 26.3 trillion yuan during that period. Social media posts have indicated that, far from moving to ensure that unfinished property is completed, local authorities may be hiring actors to make it look as if work is being done on abandoned construction sites. “Hiring: actors for a construction site, 100 yuan/day,” reads a screenshot of a job advertisement that RFA was unable to verify independently. “Requirements: To bang on the steel pipes, pull trolleys around and pretend to be engaged in construction work if someone comes to check,” the advertisement reads. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Read More

Fighting in Myanmar’s Kachin state kills at least 15 villagers

Editor04 mins

At least 15 civilians died during fierce fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and junta forces in Hpakant township, in Myanmar’s northernmost Kachin state. The battle has been raging since Monday, residents of Se Zin village told RFA. Two children were among the civilians killed in airstrikes and ground offensives and the number of casualties may be much higher. “Although it is estimated that there are many dead, I can only confirm 15 bodies at the moment as the situation is still complicated,” a local, who fled the village and did not wish to be named, told RFA on Friday. “There are many dead and we got out of there as quickly as possible. We are trying to make contact with people who have reached Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, and those who returned home, to confirm the casualties.” Some local media outlets reported the death toll was between 30 and 50 people, but RFA was unable to independently verify the numbers because phone and internet access to Hpakant township has been cut off for the past year. One resident told RFA people fled the village empty-handed and are in urgent need of food and clothing Win Ye Tun, Kachin state’s Military Council Minister for Social Affairs, told RFA efforts were being made to provide supplies to IDPs and confirm the number of casualties. “Details of the death toll are not yet known but we will confirm them step by step,” he said.  “We are ready to assist but if a region is at war we can only help when we are allowed. There will be support [in the village] and support for those who fled.” Earlier this week junta troops burned down as many as 400 homes in Se Zin. The fighting came in response to an attack on Monday by KIA and People’s Defense Forces (PDFs), who captured a military camp in Se Zin and a pro-junta Shanni Nationalities Army camp at a village in Homalin township. In mid-July troops and opposition militia fought for a week near Se Zin. Famous for its jade mines, Hpakant is one of the most heavily-armed townships in Kachin state and the scene of frequent battles. The township is close to the border with Sagaing region, where there is also strong armed resistance to junta forces. Se Zin used to house more than 3,000 people in around 600 homes but most residents have fled to other villages around 40 kilometers (25 miles) away. Some 7,400 people have been forced to flee their homes in Kachin state since the February, 2021 coup, according to the UNHCR. That is less than one percent of the 903,000 IDPs across Myanmar.

Read More

Chinese and Thai air forces to hold 10-day joint exercise this month

Editor07 mins

China and Thailand are to kick off a major joint air force exercise on Monday after a two-year suspension due to COVID, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced. The ministry said in a statement on Friday that the Falcon Strike 2022 training exercise will be held at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base in Udon Thani province, northeastern Thailand. The exercise will begin on Aug. 14 and RFA sources say it will last until Aug. 24. It will include “training courses such as air support, strikes on ground targets, and small and large-scale troop deployment,” according to China’s defense ministry. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) will dispatch fighter jets, fighter-bombers and airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, and the Royal Thai Air Force will send its fighter jets and AEW aircraft,” the ministry said. The renewed exercise marks a new effort to “enhance mutual trust and friendship between the two air forces,” the ministry said, as well as to further the strategic cooperation between Thailand and China, as the latter seeks to project power and expand its influence in the region.  The Chinese military has just finished a week-long air-naval exercise around Taiwan as an angry response to a visit to the island by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. “Thailand cannot deny China’s military role in this region. The combined exercise enables Thailand to better understand and be more familiar with the PLA’s command and control system and its military doctrine,” Dulyapak Preecharush, Deputy Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies at Thammasat University in Bangkok told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated online news service. Growing military links Reuters quoted an anonymous Thai air force source who said that Thailand will not deploy its F-16s for Falcon Strike 2022. Instead it will use its Swedish-made Saab JAS-39 Gripen fighters as well as German-made Alpha Jet light attack aircraft. It is unclear which types of aircraft China will be deploying for the exercise. Chinese fighters have been seen taking part in recent Sino-Thai Air Force joint training exercises, said Andreas Rupprecht, an expert on China’s military aviation, in a recent interview with RFA. “Thailand has been shifting more towards China in recent years,” Rupprecht said.  Fighter jets from China’s PLA Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force fly in tactical formation during joint training exercise Falcon Strike 2019. CREDIT: Chinese Defense Ministry Since the Thai military increased its power after coups in 2006 and 2014, Bangkok bought tanks, armored personnel carriers and entered into a controversial multi-billion-dollar contract to procure submarines from China.  China’s arms exports to Thailand increased five-fold between 2014 and 2018 compared with the preceding five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in Sweden. The Thai-U.S. relationship has encountered some turbulence because of the growing ties between Bangkok and Beijing, despite Thailand being the U.S.’s oldest treaty ally in Asia. The Thai air force expressed a strong interest in buying some F-35 stealth fighter jets to replace its aging fleet of F-16A/B Fighting Falcons but Washington so far seems reluctant to consider the purchase, fearing the fighter’s sensitive technologies could be compromised by China, its biggest military and strategic rival. However the upcoming Falcon Strike exercise should not increase tension between China and the U.S. if it “doesn’t have a scenario such as an attack on U.S. interests or let China become familiar with U.S. military hardware,” argued Thammasat University’s Dulyapak. “Both the U.S. and China can take turns to hold joint drills with Thailand,” the analyst said, adding: “There is no monopoly in Thailand’s defense policy.” Falcon Strike joint training exercises have been held annually since 2015 but were suspended in 2000 because of the global COVID pandemic. This year’s event is the 5th training exercise between the air forces of China and Thailand.  Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this story.

Read More

Vietnam sets up specialized police units to suppress protests across the country

Editor09 mins

More than a dozen provinces and cities in Vietnam have set up Riot Police Regiments or Battalions to be held in reserve to crack down on people accused of “disturbing public order” and carrying out “illegal demonstrations.” RFA research shows at least 15 provinces and cities had launched forces as of Oct. 10, 2021. They include Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Dong Nai, Nghe An, Lao Cai, Bac Giang, Thanh Hoa and Gia Lai. The riot squads have been formed to crack down on worker protests at the many industrial parks in southeastern Vietnam, in places such as Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, and Dong Nai. They could also be used to stop demonstrations by ethnic and religious minorities such as the Protestant Ede and Duong Van Minh sect in provinces like Cao Bang and Gia Lai. On Wednesday the Ho Chi Minh City Police held a launching ceremony for its Reserve Riot Combat Police Regiment. State media said the force was established under a ruling by the Ministry of Public Security to set up Reserve Riot Police Battalions in province-level localities. News sites did not publish the full text of the ministry’s Decision No.1984, which called for the regiment’s formation. According to the Công an Nhân dân (People’s Police) online newspaper, the regiments and battalions must be ready to fight in any situation when they receive orders from the Ministry of Public Security or directors of province-level police departments. The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department outlined the riot squad’s duties to the media. They include “preventing and suppressing cases of public disorder and illegal demonstrations,” “conducting rescue operations,” “protecting important political events of the Party and State and [maintaining order during] major holidays,” “ensuring political security, social order and safety of the locality,” and “performing other tasks as required.” Police try to stop protesters demanding clean water in Hanoi on May 1, 2016. CREDIT: Reuters Suppression of protests ‘unconstitutional’ A Ho Chi Minh City-based lawyer, who did not wish to be named for security reasons, said “suppression of unlawful protests” goes against Vietnam’s Constitution. “I think Vietnam doesn’t yet have a Law on Protests, so it can’t be said that demonstrations are illegal,” the lawyer said. “The right to protest is a constitutional right, so repression is unconstitutional.” “The Vietnamese state does not mention a Law on Protests, perhaps because it does not want to because it is afraid people will protest [against it].” A woman, who asked only to be named as Phung, participated in protests against China’s placement of the HD981 oil rig in Vietnam’s Exclusive Economic Zone in 2014. She told RFA the government has been suspending the Bill on Protests for too long.  “According to the Vietnamese Constitution, people have the right to protest, but the bill on demonstrations has been frozen for many years,” she said. “Basically, in Vietnam, every protest is suppressed, because they have not passed a bill which would allow people to ask for permission to organize demonstrations like in other countries.” “Article 25 of the 2013 Constitution stipulates that ‘Citizens have the right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, access to information, assembly, association, and demonstration.’ The exercise of these rights is prescribed by law.” Government drags its heels on protest law In 2013, the government directed the Ministry of Public Security to take primary responsibility and coordinate with relevant agencies to develop a draft Law on Protests. The bill has been repeatedly withdrawn from the National Assembly’s agenda for further study and amendment. In 2017, national legislator Truong Trong Nghia, from Ho Chi Minh City, told the National Assembly that the promulgation of a Law on Protests was necessary in order to implement the 2013 Constitution on ensuring human and citizens’ rights. Since 2018, no National Assembly member or domestic newspaper has mentioned the Bill on Protests. Strengthening the suppression of resistance  According to Hanoi-based journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, in Vietnam what is written in the Constitution is one thing, how it is implemented is another. Binh said the establishment of a specialized agency and riot police force is intended to quell all resistance by the people and comes after a series of fierce crackdowns on protests. “Following the trend of increasing repression in the past four-to-five years, the professionalization of these forces to suppress protests and people’s resistance is normal in my opinion,” Binh said. Oil rig protester Phung told RFA the repression and suppression of protests has always taken place in Vietnam. She said Vietnam does not need to sign any more international agreements so the government is not interested in respecting human rights. “At this stage Vietnam does not need to join any treaty or agreement, so they want to deal with [whichever protest] they want. Now they are also bolder,” she said. “I believe that even if a force is formed, they will not use uniformed forces to take action to suppress protesters because that will affect the image of the Vietnamese government. They don’t want to show their true face to the world.” Human Rights Watch’s latest report on Vietnam, published in February, said: “fundamental civil and political rights are systematically suppressed in Vietnam. The government, under the one-party rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam, tightened its grip on the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of association, peaceful assembly, freedom of movement, and freedom of religion.”  

Read More

Cambodian authorities clash with NagaWorld protesters, leaving several injured

Editor07 mins

Authorities in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh violently clashed with some 100, mostly female former casino workers demanding to be reinstated to their jobs on Thursday, breaking the nose of one woman and leaving several others injured, according to sources. The former workers are from a group that has been holding regular protests since they were among 1,300 laid off by the NagaWorld Casino in December 2021. The workers say they were unfairly fired and offered inadequate compensation, although only around 150 continue to protest, as an increasing number have accepted payouts after months of no salary and repeated confrontations with police. At around 2 p.m. on Thursday, dozens of authorities blocked the group from holding a protest outside the casino with metal barricades, and rained blows down on those who tried to remove them, according to Bun Sina, one of the former workers. “I came to demand the right to seek justice, [as the situation] has not yet been resolved, but I was kicked in the thigh by the authorities,” she told RFA Khmer, adding that she was shocked by the brutality of the officers. “How much more of this violence and torture will we have to suffer from the authorities before this dispute is resolved?” Police and striking NagaWorld protesters struggle over a barricade in Phnom Penh in a screengrab from a video, Aug. 11, 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Another worker named Sun Sreynich told RFA she was punched in the face by a police officer during the scuffle, causing her to bleed from the nose and pass out. “We were kneeling in front of the security forces and begging to be allowed to go to the NagaWorld building, but they assumed we were attacking them and fought us,” she said. “The officer hit me full force with his fist, breaking my nose and making me bleed. The blow knocked me unconscious,” she added, saying she is still in pain from the injury. The two sides clashed for around 15 minutes before resuming a verbal confrontation across the barricade line. The former workers eventually left the area around 5 p.m. Following the incident, the Phnom Penh government issued a statement calling the rally “illegal” for disrupting traffic and accusing protesters of intentionally attacking the reputation of the authorities by orchestrating the clash. “They created an event to put the blame on the government, inciting and provoking anger by cursing and insulting public officials before smashing 20 barricades and using violence against security forces who tried to block their path,” the statement said. “All workers should stop their unlawful demonstrations and try to resolve the dispute with the authorities,” it added. More than eight months since the layoffs, NagaWorld has said it will only discuss severance packages with former workers and Cambodia’s Ministry of Labor has deferred the matter to the courts. But the workers say they can’t afford to bring a lawsuit against the company and have urged the government to intervene in the dispute. Petition submitted Earlier on Thursday, a group of around 50 former NagaWorld workers and trade union representatives gathered to submit a petition to the Ministry of Labor, requesting that authorities drop charges against Cambodian Alliance of Trade Unions President Yang Sophorn, who the ministry has accused of organizing the protests. The petition also requested a meeting with Labor Minister Ith Samheng to find a resolution to the dispute. Fellow NagaWorld strikers attempt to revive Sun Sreynich, who says a police officer punched her in the nose and knocked her out. Credit: Citizen journalist NagaWorld Union President Chhim Sithaw met with Labor Ministry officials on Thursday and told RFA she was “disappointed” by their response, although she did not provide details of what was discussed. “We only see that the government – through City Hall, the Ministry of Labor, the judiciary, the Ministry of Health, authorities at all levels – is standing by the NagaWorld company, which is prohibited by law,” she said. “They have a role in mediation, not in protecting one side, and they must remain independent in this dispute.” Attempts by RFA to contact Labor Ministry spokesman Heng Sour for comment went unanswered Thursday. Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read More

Vietnamese authorities arrest air force officer involved in fatal car accident

Editor05 mins

Vietnamese authorities on Thursday said they arrested an air force major involved in a fatal accident in late June in southeastern Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan province after determining he had been using his cell phone when his car hit and killed a high school student on a scooter. Maj. Hoang Van Minh of the 937th regiment, 370th division, of Vietnam People’s Air Force, formally called the Air Defense-Air Force, was driving a seven-seat military vehicle when he ran into 18-year-old Ho Hoang Anh on June 28. Minh is being temporarily detained for three months while investigators look into the crash, according to the Criminal Investigation Agency of Division 2 of the Air Defense-Air Force, authorities said. The provincial public security and information and communications departments held a press briefing on Aug. 2 to announce the action against Minh. Sr. Col. Ha Cong Son, deputy chief of the Phan Rang-Thap Cham city police, said that Minh has confessed to using his mobile phone while driving. Son also said the initial investigation indicated that before the accident Minh had changed lanes in an unsafe manner, causing Anh’s death as she drove her scooter along the right lane of the street and within the speed limit.   He added that he believed there was sufficient evidence to prosecute Minh. Security camera footage shows that on the day of the crash, Minh turned the military vehicle right into the driveway of a bank office, colliding with Anh’s scooter. The impact knocked Anh off the scooter and into an electricity pole, smashing her head. She died en route to the hospital.   The video also shows Minh still holding his mobile phone and talking while getting out of his car following the collision.   Medical authorities at Ninh Thuan Provincial General Hospital initially reported that Anh’s blood-alcohol concentration level was 0.79 milligrams per 100 milliliters of blood. That led to fears among her family and the public that the release of the test result was a part of an effort to exonerate Minh by placing the blame on Anh.  Ahn’s father filed a complaint asking for a review of claims that his daughter’s drinking caused the crash, and spoke with newspapers to make the point that alcohol was not to blame, according to an RFA report earlier this month.  After receiving his petition, the People’s Committee of Ninh Thuan province asked provincial police to verify the young woman’s blood-alcohol test result. On July 29, the hospital’s director apologized to the family for issuing an incorrect alcohol test result, blaming a technician for not following test regulations.  A week later, hospital administrators visited the student’s family to apologize in person and promised to invalidate the test result. On Tuesday, the hospital’s disciplinary committee said it would discipline those responsible.  Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Read More

North Korean soldiers ordered to harvest grass for compost in spare time

Editor05 mins

North Korean soldiers in low-level military units have an unusual and not entirely welcome new mission: collecting grass during summer training breaks to produce compost for farms, sources inside the country said. The impoverished and isolated country suffers from chronic shortages of chemical-based fertilizer during the summer growing season, a situation that has grown worse since 2020 because of border closures with China that cut off trade during the coronavirus pandemic. Each year, North Korean citizens are tasked by their government to fill unrealistically high government quotas for fertilizer. But the material they typically collect is human waste, which gets mixed with soil and applied to farm fields. “The dissatisfaction among soldiers is increasing as each unit uses their free time to meet the grass quotas,” a military-related source in North Hamgyong province told RFA on Tuesday. The General Political Bureau of the People’s Army sets grass compost production quotas for all military units each August and September, said the source who declined to be identified so as to speak freely. Each soldier is required to produce 50 kilograms (110 lbs.) of grass daily in order to produce compost, he added. They make natural fertilizer by cutting grass on a nearby mountainside as well as in areas to which they are assigned for their quotas, the military-related source said.  “This is all after their daily training,” he said. “As they are required to produce natural fertilizer in their free time after mandatory training, the soldiers are becoming exhausted. The morale of the soldiers participating in the training is declining day by day.” North Koreans cannot understand why authorities are mobilizing soldiers and assigning them to miscellaneous tasks like grass collection for compost, even though they verbally emphasize the importance of their training during the summer months, the military-related source said. They order the soldiers to produce grass-based fertilizer, stressing the importance of providing for the greater society to the benefit of all North Koreans, he said.  “The soldiers are confused because they have no idea how to go along with all these different orders,” he said. High-level commands are conducting frequent inspections to encourage the soldiers’ production of grass-based fertilizer, a military-related source in Ryanggang province told RFA on Tuesday. “The staff in each unit is obligated to report the grass-cutting performance of subordinate units,” said the source who declined to be named for the same reason. “Each officer in charge of a unit is struggling to match the daily performance.” Even officers are questioning why authorities are forcing them to produce grass-based fertilizer, he said. “Some military officers are complaining and saying, ‘We should make the military’s main job of training as a side job instead, and change farming to the main job of the military,’” said the source. Earlier this week, RFA reported that North Korean authorities are dispatching veterans and soldiers about to demobilize to collective farms to make up for labor shortages, raising fears among the military ranks that they will be stuck working in rural areas for the rest of their lives. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee for RFA Korean. Translated by Roseanne Gerin.

Read More

Manila backs Senate bill to officially rename contested waters ‘West Philippine Sea’

Editor09 mins

The Philippine foreign office said Thursday it was backing legislative efforts to formally rename the country’s portions of the South China Sea as the “West Philippine Sea,” in a move to bolster Manila’s territorial claims in the contested waterway. On Wednesday, Sen. Francis Tolentino announced he had filed Senate Bill 405, a proposed piece of legislation that aims to “institutionalize” the use of “ the West Philippine Sea” as the official name of territories claimed by the Philippines in waters that China and other neighbors also contest. The air space, seabed, and subsoil on the western side of the Philippine archipelago would be renamed “to reinforce the Philippines’ claim to the disputed territories found on the western side of the archipelago,” according to an excerpt from SB405. Maria Teresita Daza, spokeswoman for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, said Tolentino’s bill was consistent with a 2016 international arbitration court’s ruling that sided with Manila. “The West Philippine Sea was already actually defined in 2012 through Administrative Order 29,” Daza told a press briefing on Thursday. “Nevertheless, the department recognizes what the process of legislation can do in terms of clarity and institution building. And we look forward to supporting the process, should we be invited to do so,” she said. Tolentino’s bill covers waters around, within, and adjacent to the Kalayaan Island Group and Scarborough Shoal, as well as the Luzon Sea, or waters also known as the Luzon Strait between the northern Philippine island of Luzon and Taiwan. The Philippine senator said that the proposed legislation came about in response to the “archipelagic doctrine” embodied in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Under it, the Philippines is granted a territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone of up to 24 nautical miles, and an exclusive economic zone of up to 200 nautical miles where the West Philippine Sea is located. The bill also directs government offices to use the name in all communications, messages, and public documents, and “to popularize the use of such [a] name with the general public, both domestically and internationally.” Six years ago, the Philippines won an arbitral award against Beijing before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The landmark ruling nullified China’s expansive claims to the sea region, including in waters that reach neighbors’ shores. Manila had filed the case in 2012, when the Chinese occupied areas near Scarborough Shoal, a triangular chain of rocks and reefs that Filipinos consider a traditional fishing ground. Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam all claim parts of the sea. China, for its part, draws a nine-dash line to delineate its claim of “historical rights” to almost 90 percent of the waterway. The line also overlaps with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of another nation – Indonesia. And while the name “South China Sea” has gained near universal acceptance in usage, countries that have claims to the disputed waters have their own different names for it. Vietnam calls the maritime region “the East Sea,” and, to Beijing, it is plainly known as “the South Sea.” In 2017, Indonesia renamed a resource-rich northern region around its Natuna Islands, which lie off the southern end of the South China Sea, as the North Natuna Sea. The waters near the Natunas have seen some tense standoffs in recent years between Indonesian ships and ships from China and other nations, including Chinese coast guard vessels. Jakarta’s decision to change the name of the sea region north of the islands was spurred by the arbitration court’s ruling in Manila’s favor the year before that nullified China’s historical claim to the entire South China Sea through the nine-dash line, Arif Havas Oegroseno, then the deputy of maritime sovereignty at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs, told reporters at the time. Since the arbitration court ruled for Manila in 2016, Beijing has refused to budge from the area around Scarborough Shoal. On Thursday, officials at the Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately respond to BenarNews efforts seeking comment on the Philippine bill. The proposed formal name change is a far cry from the policy on the disputed waters implemented by former President Rodrigo Duterte, who did not seek to enforce the ruling when he took office in 2016, but instead pursued warmer ties with Beijing. During his six-year term, Duterte, who left office on June 30, also pulled the Philippines away from the United States, the Philippines’ longtime ally and China’s main rival, until later in his term when he declared that the arbitration award was “beyond compromise.”  The U.S. government, meanwhile, has insisted on the doctrine of freedom of navigation and has sailed its navy ships into the contested waters. Duterte’s successor, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., in his first “state of the nation” address to Congress last month, declared he would not preside over any process that would give away “even one square inch of territory” to foreign rivals. Marcos’ newly appointed military chief, Lt. Gen. Bartolome Vicente Bacarro, told his generals and other military officials during his first command conference on Wednesday that the armed forces supported President Marcos’ pronouncement. “We only do what is required of us to do and what is important is we are able to perform our mandate to protect (the state and) our people,” Col. Medel Aguilar, a spokesman for the military, told reporters.  BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Read More

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