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Vietnam appeals court reduces jail terms for two NGO workers

A court in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Thursday slightly reduced the jail terms of two civil society workers sentenced in January on tax evasion charges, saying one of the men had returned part of the money owed, while the other had not gained financially from the evasion. Mai Phan Loi, chairman of the Committee for Scientific Affairs of the Center for Media in Educating Community (MEC), will now serve 45 of the 48 months of his original sentence, while MEC director Bach Hung Duong will serve 27 months of a 30-month term, according to state media reports. In a story Thursday, the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper said that Loi’s sentence was reduced because his family had returned part of the money claimed in taxes, while Loi himself had cooperated with authorities investigating the case against him. Duong will now serve a shorter term because he had received no benefit from the tax evasion and is suffering from an unspecified illness, the newspaper added. Speaking to RFA after the hearing, defense attorney Huynh Phuong Nam declined to comment on the trial, saying only that Loi’s family had given back VND 1.2 billion ($50,000) out of the VND 1.97 billion ($82,100) claimed by the government in taxes. The indictment filed against the men by the Hanoi People’s Procuracy said that MEC had received nearly VND 20 billion in support from domestic and international organizations, but had failed to create financial reports or submit tax declaration forms. Though nonprofit organizations are exempt from paying corporate taxes in Vietnam, the tax laws pertaining to NGOs receiving funds from international donors are particularly vague and restrictive, sources say. Jail term upheld In a separate hearing, the Hanoi High-Level People’s Court on Thursday upheld the 5-year prison sentence imposed in January on Dang Dinh Bach, director of the Research Center for Law and Policy for Sustainable Development (LPSD), saying Bach had refused to return VND 1.3 billion ($54,200) owed in taxes. Bach had failed to file taxes and to report sponsorship from groups overseas from 2016 to 2020, the indictment against him said. Speaking to RFA after the hearing, Bach’s wife Tran Phuong Thao said that security forces had barred her from attending her husband’s trial, forcing her to sit instead at the courthouse gate. Lawyers were also prevented from bringing laptop computers or mobile phones into the court, she said. “I was not surprised by the outcome of the trial and was mentally prepared for whatever would happen,” Thao said. “My husband continues to deny all the charges made against him and still declares his innocence. “Because my family has not paid the government’s so-called ‘remediation money,’ the court would not consider mitigating circumstances,” she said. Rights groups and activists have condemned Loi’s, Duong’s and Bach’s jailing, noting their arrests followed their promotion of civil society’s role in monitoring the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which came into force in 2021. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Richard Finney.

Hongkongers warn of Chinese Communist Party infiltration of British universities

Editor3 years ago08 mins

Youth organizers linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are actively recruiting among Hongkongers in exile at British universities, according to a statement from several Hong Kong advocacy groups. The Hong Kong branch of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), part of the CCP’s United Front Work Department outreach and influence program, is calling on Hong Kong students in the U.K. to sign up for a “mentorship” program at several universities. “Despite being directly connected to a government organization, [the program] promised that ‘there will be no political propaganda’,” a joint statement from five Hong Kong activist groups in the U.K., including Power to Hongkongers and Nottingham Stands with Hong Kong, said. “This claim is contradictory … We strongly oppose this program due to our deep concern over its covert political objective,” the statement, which was also signed by Durham Stands with Hong Kong, Newcastle Stands with Hong Kong and the Liverpool Hongkongers Alliance, said. “We urge the participating student societies to withdraw from this program and disassociate from this organization,” the statement, carried on the Facebook page of Nottingham Stands with Hong Kong, said. A spokesman for Newcastle Stands with Hong Kong who gave only the nickname K said Hong Kong activists are increasingly concerned about CCP infiltration of British universities. “We also experienced a lot of infiltration of the CCP into British universities when we were studying,” K said. “For example, in 2019 ,the Chinese Students and Scholars’ Associations (CSSAs) directed Chinese students to suppress Hong Kong students’ activities on campus in support of Hong Kong.” “The societies participating in this mentorship program are mainly established by Hong Kong people and carry a certain influence in Hong Kong student circles,” K said. “We are worried that the CCP will continue to brainwash the next generation of Hong Kong people overseas by infiltrating these societies.” The official Facebook page of the Hong Kong Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Youth Federation contains pro-Beijing images and other content. Credit: Hong Kong CPPCC Youth Federation Facebook page Coopting universities K said CCP propaganda, enforced by a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020, has already changed the atmosphere at Hong Kong’s universities, particularly the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Polytechnic University, which resisted attacks by fully armed riot police and even an armored car on their respective campuses with Molotov cocktails and makeshift weaponry in November 2019. “The CCP has never stopped infiltrating, and has set up … organizations overseas to try to extend their influence to students in other countries,” K said. “Overseas governments should pay more attention to this attempt to coopt universities, so as to curb the expansion of CCP influence,” they said. Hong Kong societies at eight British universities including Kings’ College London, Leeds University and Queen Mary University, London had already signed up for the “mentorship” scheme by the time the statement appeared. Kings College London took down the poster soon after the Aug. 8 statement appeared, to be followed by other societies on Aug. 9. But the poster remains on the Instagram accounts of the Unite UK Alliance and the Swansea University’s Hong Kong society. Benefits vs. dangers Chu Seoi, a doctoral student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who is currently teaching in a German university, said the “mentorship” program offered some attractive benefits to participants, and urged Hongkongers to remember who was behind it. “This program is pretty tempting,” Chu told RFA. “But the problem is that it is provided by the enemy of us Hongkongers: the United Front Work Department of the CCP.” “It’s being provided by the same CCP that took away our city, our home, and destroyed freedom and democracy in Hong Kong,” Chu said. “It’s as if someone who just killed your family comes running up and offers to introduce you to some people … who could help your career.” An employee surnamed Yue who answered the phone at the the Hong Kong CPPCC youth association on Wednesday said the mentorship program pairs young Hong Kong students with industry leaders in various sectors, and costs nothing to take part in. “Students in the U.K. can participate,” she said. “We will match them up with a mentor based on their wishes, and they can communicate with others in a group.” “We don’t charge students money for this, but it has been postponed until October now,” Yue said. The group was set up in 2014, and consists of CPPCC members under the age of 45, and the offspring of wealthy Hong Kong business owners, to “serve our nation, serve Hong Kong, and serve our members,” according to a motto on its Facebook page. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Bangladesh police: 2 Rohingya leaders were victims of ‘target killings’

Editor3 years ago06 mins

Unidentified assailants fatally shot two Rohingya leaders as they returned home after overseeing community night-watch duties at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, police said Wednesday. The shooting inside the Kutupalong mega-camp in the Ukiah sub-district on Tuesday evening was the latest in a string of killings, as fears grow among Rohingya refugees about crime and deteriorating public safety in crowded camps along Bangaldesh’s border with Myanmar. Abu Taleb, 40, and Syed Hossain, 35, were the victims of “target killings” by a criminal gang in Tuesday’s attack, said Kamran Hossain, an additional superintendent of the Armed Police Battalion that is responsible for security in the camps, which are home to about 1 million Rohingya refugees. Taleb was leader of a block in camp-15 while Hossain led a sub-block at the Jamtoli refugee camp in Ukhia, he said. Both camps lie within the confines of Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee camp. “At around 11:45 p.m. Tuesday, Abu Taleb and Syed Hossain went to a hill of Jamtoli camp to make cell phone calls after distributing the night surveillance duties among Rohingya volunteers. Then eight to 10 assailants shot them and fled the scene through another hill,” Hossain told BenarNews, an RFA-affiliated news service, on Wednesday. “Both the slain Rohingya leaders had been active in curbing criminal activities at the camp. They used to cooperate with the police to arrest the camp-based criminals, so we are sure that they were the victims of target killings,” he said. The killings occurred a day after assailants killed Md. Ibrahim, 30, in the Nayapara refugee camp in Teknaf, another sub-district of Cox’s Bazar. Since mid-June, nine Rohingya men, including two suspected members of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA), a militant group, were killed at the camps, according to the Bangladeshi authorities. “We have information that there is tension among different groups over the selection of camp leaders. We are examining all available clues,” Hossain said. “Most of the killings at the refugee camps are targeted – that are very hard to stop.” Mohammad Ali, the officer-in-charge of the Ukhia police station, told BenarNews that the bodies were sent to a Cox’s Bazar hospital for autopsies, and police were preparing to file murder charges once suspects were identified. The law enforcers said the rival groups have been attacking each other over control of the camps, where the trade in illegal weapons and drugs, along with human trafficking, are rampant. ARSA, based in Myanmar’s Rakhine state where Rohingya began a mass exodus to the Cox’s Bazar camps in August 2017, has been killing their rivals, law enforcers said. Members of the militant group have also been blamed for the Sept. 29, 2021, killing of Muhib Ullah, who had gained international fame and visited the White House in Washington on behalf of his fellow refugees. Until that time, authorities had denied the presence of ARSA in Bangladesh, but an investigation showed that ARSA members killed Ullah because of his popularity. Refugees feel unsafe In the wake of the recent spate of killings, camp residents said they worried about their safety. “We, the ordinary people, want peace at the camps. Many of the camp leaders help the police arrest the criminals and ARSA members,” Md. Kamal Hossain, a leader at the Balukhali camp, told BenarNews. “After coming out of the jail on bail, criminals identify informants and kill them in a premeditated way,” he said. “Therefore, ordinary Rohingya people do not dare to give tips about the criminals.” Hossain said the night surveillance by police and volunteers had led to a drop in criminal activities in the camps. “Very often the ARSA members threaten the camp leaders over phones so we immediately inform police about the threats,” Hossain said. “Though the police have been helping us, we are really worried.” BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated news service.

China holds Taiwanese incommunicado amid ‘secessionism’ probe into Taiwan activities

Editor3 years ago07 mins

Authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang have placed a Taiwanese activist in incommunicado detention on suspicion of “separatism” and “endangering national security,” as the democratic island’s president hit out at a China trip by an opposition politician. Taiwan national Yang Chih-yuan was placed in “residential surveillance at a designated location (RSDL)” from Aug. 4 — meaning he will likely be held with no access to a lawyer or to family visits for six months — China’s Global Times newspaper reported. The paper said Yang had been “actively scheming” to work towards formal statehood for Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China, since high school. It cited his campaigning for a referendum on independence for Taiwan, a sovereign state still using the name of the 1911 Republic of China founded by Sun Yat-sen, and his founding of the Taiwan National Party in 2011 as examples. The paper said state security police in Zhejiang’s Wenzhou city are currently investigating Yang, who is also accused of “colluding with separatist forces to support Hong Kong secessionists” during the 2019 protest movement in the city. Rights groups say RSDL is associated with a higher risk of torture and mistreatment in detention. The news came as the vice chairman of Taiwan’s opposition Kuomintang (KMT), Andrew Hsia, arrived in China on a tour of several southern and eastern cities and provinces. It is unclear whether he negotiated with the Chinese authorities on Yang’s behalf. Hsia’s trip came amid several days of PLA military activity around Taiwan in the wake of an Aug. 2-3 visit to the island, which Beijing claims must be ‘unified’ with China, by military force if necessary. When the nationalist KMT regime of Chiang Kai-shek fled to Taiwan after losing the civil war to Mao Zedong’s Soviet-backed communists, it took over what had been a dependency of Japan since 1895, when Taiwan’s inhabitants proclaimed a short-lived Republic of Formosa after being ceded to Japan by the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). The island had just been handed back to the Republic of China as part of Japanese reparations in the wake of World War II, and KMT rule wasn’t welcome in many quarters, particularly after the Feb. 28 massacre following a popular uprising in 1947. Nonetheless, Beijing forces countries to choose between diplomatic recognition of Beijing or Taipei, and has repeatedly threatened to annex the island, should it seek formal statehood as Taiwan. Andrew Hsia gestures while speaking to a lawmaker at the Interior Committee of the Taiwan Parliament on April 13, 2016. Credit: AFP Bad timing for trip Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the time wasn’t right for Hsia’s trip, given the intensive military activity aimed at Taiwan, while president Tsai Ing-wen told the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on Wednesday that his visit was disappointing, and could send the wrong message about the level of threat the island faces from China. The KMT has billed the visit as a “fact-finding” mission and a chance to connect with Taiwanese business owners in the Yangtze and Pearl River delta regions. Just this morning, China released a white paper full of wishful thinking … ignoring reality on the other side of the Taiwan Strait and not renouncing the use of force against Taiwan,” Tsai told party members. “It is disappointing to the people of Taiwan that the KMT is insisting on going to China at a time like this,” she said. “[It also] sends the wrong message to the international community. We want to make it clear here that what the people of Taiwan want peace, neither provoking nor escalating conflict, but also to safeguard our sovereignty and national security, and for Taiwan never to back down,” Tsai said. Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je said the trip would only be defensible if Hsia used it to protest the military blockade of air and sea around Taiwan. “If it’s just for fund-raising, then what kind of a time is this?” Ko said. Hsia told journalists just before he left that he “won’t be deterred by the current military exercises.” “We want to listen to our friends, hear what they have to say, and help them, in the hope that some improvements can be made,” he said. “Communication and contact are definitely good things … we won’t be put off by attempts to label us or attack us online or in the media.” Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Severe Health Impacts of the Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM)

Editor3 years ago3 years ago210 mins

The growth of TCM has been reckless over the years, but the central question remained unanswered, i.e. is TCM really beneficial as projected by China or are there any severe side effects of TCM ? We’ll try to uncover the truth by exploring various dimensions in which TCM has adversely affected the human health.

Naval standoff continues near Taiwan in spite of China claiming war games are over

Editor3 years ago3 years ago08 mins

Chinese and Taiwanese ships continued an apparent standoff in the waters near Taiwan despite the Chinese military saying major drills around the island were over, open source investigators said, citing satellite imagery from Sentinel Hub. As the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) wrapped up its week-long operation, held in response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, “at least two sets of ships in typical ‘shadowing’ positions [were] observed East of Taiwan” on Wednesday, H I Sutton, a well-known independent defense analyst wrote on Twitter. On the same day, Beijing released a White Paper on Taiwan and China’s “reunification” policy, which Taiwan dismissed. “Taiwan rejects the “one country, two systems” model proposed by Beijing,” said Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou at a media briefing in Taipei on Thursday. “Only Taiwan’s people can decide its future,” Ou added. Regular patrols Images from satellite data provider Sentinel Hub show two Taiwanese ships “shadowing” two Chinese vessels in waters off Hualian County in eastern Taiwan since early this week, several open source intelligence (OSINT) analysts said. The PLA announced a major military exercise on Aug. 4 after Pelosi made a controversial stopover in Taipei. Beijing repeatedly warned her against the visit, which it condemned as a “gross violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and threatened retaliation. The military exercise was due to end on Aug. 7 but went on for two more days and only wrapped up on Wednesday. Yet the collected OSINT data indicate that China will probably continue to put pressure on the Taiwanese military in coming days. Sr. Col. Shi Yi, spokesman of the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said on Wednesday that the Command’s troops will continue to “organize normalized combat-readiness security patrols in the Taiwan Strait.” The PLA is starting to “normalize” its activities, including drills east of the median line, adding to the pressure it has already exerted on Taiwan, said Collin Koh, a Singapore-based regional military expert, in a recent interview with RFA. A Taiwan Air Force F-16V taking off from Hualien airbase during a recent drill. CREDIT: Taiwan Defense Ministry Less autonomy for Taiwan On Wednesday, the Chinese government office responsible for Taiwan-related affairs released a White Paper titled “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” to clarify Beijing’s policy towards the island that it considers a Chinese province. This is the third White Paper on Taiwan, the previous ones were published in 1993 and 2000. “We are one China, and Taiwan is a part of China,” the paper said. “Taiwan has never been a state; its status as a part of China is unalterable,” it reiterated. “Peaceful reunification and One Country, Two Systems are our basic principles for resolving the Taiwan question and the best approach to realizing national reunification,” the White Paper said, adding that “certain political forces have been misrepresenting and distorting its objectives.” “Lack of details on ‘Two Systems’ compared with the 1993 and 2000 papers suggests an arrangement that might involve less political and legal autonomy for Taiwan,” Amanda Hsiao, China Senior Analyst at the Crisis Group think-tank, wrote on Twitter. The White Paper also provided guidelines for the post-reunification governance over the island. “We maintain that after peaceful reunification, Taiwan may continue its current social system and enjoy a high degree of autonomy in accordance with the law,” it said. However, while both the 1993 and 2000 White Papers pledged that China would not send troops or administrative personnel to be stationed in Taiwan following unification, the 2022 version did not have that line, said Crisis Group’s Hsiao. For the first time Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was mentioned in the paper. “The actions of the DPP authorities have resulted in tension in Cross-Straits relations, endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, and undermining the prospects and restricting the space for peaceful reunification,” it said. “These are obstacles that must be removed in advancing the process of peaceful reunification,” it said, delivering a clear threat to President Tsai Ing-wen’s party.” Recently, China’s ambassador to France provoked an outcry when he said during a TV interview that Taiwanese people will be re-educated after reunification with the mainland. “We will re-educate. I’m sure that the Taiwanese population will again become favorable over the reunification and will become patriots again,” Ambassador Lu Shaye told BFM TV. The Taiwanese authorities have “effectively indoctrinated and intoxicated” the population through de-Sinicization policies, Lu said in another interview. “Re-education” is the indoctrination technique used by several authoritarian regimes against dissent. China has been criticized by foreign countries and human rights groups for its re-education programs for the Uyghurs in its northwestern Xinjiang province.

Woman killed, son injured, in shelling of Chin state village

Editor3 years ago03 mins

A 55-year-old woman was killed and her son was injured when a shell hit a village during fighting between junta forces and local militia in Hakha city, the capital of Myanmar’s Chin State. Local residents told RFA Wednesday’s battle broke out between the Hakha Chin Land Defense Force and the military’s Ka La Ya 266 battalion near the city’s ministerial residences. A local, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, told RFA an artillery shell landed on a house in Hniarlawn village, 11 kilometers (7 miles) from Hakha city. “She was hit by the artillery shell and died on the spot while she was cooking in the kitchen,” the resident said. “One of her sons was wounded in the hand. Her body has been left there for now because everyone has fled to the forest.” The woman was cooking in her kitchen when the shell hit her home. CREDIT: Chin Journal Calls by RFA to Military Council Spokesman Gen. Zaw Min Tun went unanswered on Thursday. This is not the first time fighting has affected Hniarlawn village, which houses more than 600 people in over 100 homes. Last month, 22-year-old Salai Manliansan was shot dead by junta troops there, according to residents. Battles break out daily in Chin state, causing many locals to flee their homes and set up makeshift camps in the jungle. UNICEF says the state, in the west of the country, has the highest poverty rate of all Myanmar’s regions but aid has been slow to arrive. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said last week 866,000 people had become refugees in Myanmar in the 18 months since the Feb. 2021 coup. There are now more than 1.2 million internally displaced persons across the country, or more than 2% of the total population.

Vietnam’s government struggles to counter what it calls “fake news”

Editor3 years ago03 mins

Vietnam’s Ministry of Information & Communication is cracking down on “online fake and malicious news,” spread by users in a country where tens of millions of people use global social networking sites every day. The issue of distorted reports that could spread confusion and misinformation was brought up by legislators at the country’s National Assembly during the 14th session of the NA’s Standing Committee. State-controlled media carried quotes by Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung on Wednesday. Hung said “fake news” mainly appeared on homepages of global sites such as Facebook and YouTube. He said the multinational platforms had increased their response to Vietnamese removal requests from 20% in 2018 to 90-95% today. Hung said before 2018 there were about 5,000 stories and videos that were deemed to be untrue by the government, which asked for them to be removed. He said the number has increased 20-fold to 100,000 stories and videos a day. Last year the ministry set up the Vietnam Counterfeit News Center to tackle the problem. It also ordered the National Cyber Safety Center to detect “false information,” as early as possible. The processing capacity of the center has increased from 100 million messages per day to 300 million. The ministry has also issued an online code of conduct to establish standards of behavior by social network users and persuade them to act responsibly in their written and video posts. Hung said since the beginning of the year hundreds of violations on spreading “fake news” have been recorded and handled. A number of cases identified as criminal violations have been transferred to the Ministry of Public Security. Facebook said 20 million Vietnamese use the social networking site every day, 17 million of them on mobile devices. The country is 13% above the global average in terms of daily usage, Facebook said. YouTube had 66.63 million users in Vietnam last year, according to the data website Statista.com, which estimates the number will rise to 75.44 million by 2025. Vietnam led the Asia Pacific in terms of the number of YouTube broadcasters late last year, according to local website VNExpress, with 25 million live streamers.

Junta troops kill 5, torch hundreds of homes in Kachin state village

Editor3 years ago08 mins

Junta troops killed five civilians and torched as many as 400 homes over three days of air raids, heavy artillery fire and fierce clashes with a joint force of ethnic rebels and pro-democracy paramilitaries in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state, residents said Wednesday. Four of the victims were killed on Tuesday when military jets flew the first of eight bombing runs over Se Zin village in the jade mining township of Hpakant, killing a child, said a resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing security concerns. “The last plane bombed at about 8:00 pm and then they fired at the village with machine guns and 60-mm heavy weapons,” he told RFA Burmese. “The child died on the spot when his house was hit by the shelling. One woman had to have her leg amputated. And this morning, about 6:00 am, a family was shot at while trying to leave on a motorcycle. The husband and wife and their son [all died].” The fifth victim, a man in his 40s, died on Monday when a shell fell on his house during heavy fighting near the village, the resident said. He told RFA that there may have been additional casualties in the village, but said they hadn’t been confirmed. The raid followed a Monday attack by a combined column of ethnic Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitaries that led to the capture of a military camp in Se Zin village and a pro-military Shanni National Army (SNA) camp located across the river in Shwepyi Myint village in Sagaing region’s Homalin township. The joint force also attacked the Se Zin Village Police Station on Tuesday. RFA was unable to confirm the number of casualties in the clashes. Another Se Zin resident, who also did not want to be named, said hundreds of homes in the village were destroyed in a fire set by junta troops. “There are about 500 houses in the whole village and 300 or 400 have been turned to ash,” he said. “The fires were set by the military and the Shanni forces. They did it deliberately. They even set fire to houses that were left undestroyed [in the bombing].” Se Zin is a busy village surrounded by private gold mines in Hpakant’s Hawng Par village tract. The fighting forced more than 3,000 residents of Se Zin to flee to the township’s Tar Ma Hkan village, about an hour away by motorcycle, where they are sheltering in schools, churches and monasteries, the resident said. He said the refugees had fled with only the shirts on their backs and are in need of emergency food, clothing and medicine. Other residents of Hpakant told RFA that some of the villagers remain trapped in Se Zin, where the military has set up a camp. File photo of houses in Se Zin village, Hpakant township, Kachin State. Credit: Citizen journalist The ‘usual response’ Speaking to RFA on Wednesday, Social Affairs Minister Win Ye Tun, who serves as the junta’s spokesperson in Kachin state, said the details of the situation in Se Zin village are “not yet known,” but said the military is “ready to help” those who have fled their homes. “We have contingency plans for people who have to leave their homes because of fighting,” he said. “I haven’t received any news yet about the fires or the clashes. I am the minister of social affairs, so reports about the fighting don’t come to me.” Col. Naw Bu, the news and information officer for the ethnic Kachin Independence Organization (KIO), said it has become “routine” for the military to burn the homes of residents whenever there is a clash. “Last night, there was an attack on the police station in Se Zin village and this is the usual response of the [junta],” he said. “When there is a battle with their adversaries, whether it is near a village or their camp, or in the village, they won’t hesitate to kill people or torch houses.” Naw Bu confirmed that there had been three consecutive days of heavy fighting in Se Zin village beginning on Monday and that the military had “launched aerial attacks all day” on Tuesday. The raid on Se Zin comes less than a month after about a week of clashes beginning on July 16 between the military and the armed opposition in and around the village. Hpakant is one of the most heavily militarized townships in Kachin state. The military cut off mobile internet access to the area on Aug. 20 last year. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Relatives of political prisoners in Vietnam push for proper health care for inmates

Editor3 years ago09 mins

About 30 families of political prisoners in Vietnam are calling on the government to allow sick inmates to be hospitalized after two inmates died, they said, from lack of timely care. Do Cong Duong, an independent journalist who was jailed on charges of “disturbing public order” and “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy,” died at a hospital in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, on Aug. 2, while serving time in Detention Center No. 6. He was healthy prior to his arrest, but he contracted multiple diseases in prison, and his supporters say authorities did not give him timely access to appropriate medical treatment. Duong’s passing was the second death among prisoners of conscience at the detention facility. Another prisoner of conscience, Dao Quang Thuc, died in the same detention facility in 2019. The retired teacher was serving a 13-year term for “subversion” because of Facebook postings. When he showed signs of illness in prison, authorities took him to Nghe An Friendship General Hospital for treatment but after he returned to the detention center, he died a week later of what authorities said was a stroke, RFA reported at the time. His body was held for autopsy and not returned to his family for burial, sources said. The families of prisoners of conscience sent the signed open letter on Aug. 9 to authorities stating their concerns over the health conditions of their imprisoned relatives, said Pham Thi Lan, the wife of political prisoner Nguyen Tuong Thuy, a former RFA blogger who is serving an 11-year jail term at An Phuoc Detention Center in the southern province of Binh Duong. The relatives expressed outrage at the recent deaths and demanded that the Vietnamese government ensure that their incarcerated family members have access to health care, as Vietnamese law demands. The open letter said that the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights also requires that political prisoners be given access to proper health care. The Vietnamese government must respect prisoners’ rights, including rights to safe water and food and timely health care, the letter said. Political prisoners’ health has been a long-standing concern of their families and has become a hot-button issue after the two prisoners’ deaths. Lan said she was “gravely concerned” about Thuy’s health because the 72-year-old suffers from high blood pressure, gout and skin diseases. “The prison clinic does provide my husband with some medicines, but I am not sure whether the medicines work or their provision is just a temporary solution,” she said via text message. “I did request that they allow my husband to see a specialist, but the detention center refused, saying that Mr. Thuy was healthy enough to serve his prison term,” she added. Thuy’s family has expressed concerns about his health since he was detained, she said. ‘Many have lost their lives’ Nguyen Van Hai, a political prisoner who was released and sent to the U.S. in 2014, said that he and other inmates lacked proper health care. Some prisoners with heart issues who were not allowed to keep medicines in their cells died because they didn’t have access to their drugs or to urgent care, said Hai, a Vietnamese blogger and co-founder of the Free Journalists Club of Vietnam. “Detention centers refuse to provide treatment for prisoners who have health problems,” he said. “This happens especially at Xuyen Moc Detention Center [in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province], Detention Center No. 6 in Nghe An province, and Detention Center No. 5 in Thanh Hoa province. Many have lost their lives in prison.” The harsh prison conditions, which may include forced labor, exacerbate a prisoner’s existing health problems, Hai said. Prison wardens and guards do not feel pressure to provide prisoners of conscience proper care because the authorities themselves are also empowered to investigate the deaths, so there is little accountability, he said. “When prison doors shut, laws and regulations have to stay outside them,” Hai told RFA. “The prisoners’ fates are in the hands of prison wardens and guards. Therefore, these people are very aggressive.” Hai said he believed that the treatment of prisoners of conscience would improve if the international community paid closer attention to the issue. Under Vietnam’s 2019 Law on the Execution of Criminal Judgements, prisoners have the right to receive treatment at detention centers, prisons or the nearest state-run medical center. Prisoners that have serious illnesses that cannot be treated locally should be transferred to higher-level medical establishments, and district-level police must inform their families or a representative about the transfer, according to the law. Human rights attorney Nguyen Van Dai, who has twice been imprisoned for a total of nearly seven years, said the treatment of prisoners of conscience is often based on the whims of police officials. “For example, if investigators say that prison guards should treat suspects [held in detention] well, then that person will be provided with very good food and health care,” he told RFA. “However, the treatment towards the suspect will be reversed, including the provision of health care, if investigators say that he or she should be treated poorly. “Investigators want to put pressure on the suspect through this treatment so that they can quickly get the investigation outcomes they want,” he added. Dai, founder of the Brotherhood for Democracy, also said medical staff at prison clinics are usually able to only handle minor health issues. But prison authorities make it difficult for inmates with serious illnesses to move to a better-equipped and staffed medical center. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Category: World