World Archives - Page 156 of 239 - Investigative Journalism Reportika

ASEAN aid promised in May has yet to reach Myanmar’s refugees

Myanmar’s junta has yet to deliver humanitarian assistance pledged three months ago by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for the country’s more than 1.2 million refugees of conflict, who aid workers say are in dire need of food and medicine. At a May 6 meeting in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, the ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance (AHA) agreed to deliver aid to Myanmar under the supervision of the military regime, which would distribute it to those in need. However, aid workers in northwest Myanmar’s Sagaing region told RFA Burmese that as of Monday none of the promised aid had been delivered there or other regions with refugees in need, including Chin, Kayah and Kayin states. “ASEAN’s help hasn’t made it to Sagaing yet,” said Thet Oo, who is assisting victims of conflict with the People-to-People Program in the region’s Yinmarbin and Salingyi townships. “It’s been three months since their meeting, but nothing has come to Yinmarbin district at all.” Thet Oo warned ASEAN not to trust the junta’s promises. “The junta, which is terrorizing us, will never provide the aid or assistance they agreed to with ASEAN,” he said. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced on Aug. 3 that 866,000 people had joined the ranks of Myanmar’s refugees since the military’s Feb. 1, 2021 coup, bringing the total number to more than 1.2 million, or more than 2% of the country’s population of 54.4 million. Of the new refugees, some 470,000 were forced to flee their homes in Sagaing, where clashes between junta troops and the armed opposition are among the deadliest and most frequent in the nation. Thet Oo said his organization is struggling to provide assistance with only donations to rely on. Meanwhile, the military is carrying out a scorched earth offensive in the region, conducting raids on villages and setting them on fire, and creating new refugees each day, he said. In neighboring Chin state, where fierce fighting is also a daily occurrence, refugees are also facing severe shortages, aid workers told RFA. “The need for food and medicine is still very great. There isn’t enough food in the mountains. No NGOs have yet come here,” a spokesman for the Mindat Township Refugee Camps Management Committee said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Since the beginning, when we heard ASEAN would be providing assistance through the junta, we have been skeptical. It was clear that Chin state would not be included in the distribution program. Sure enough, no aid has reached the refugees in Mindat township to date.” Repeated calls by RFA seeking comment from junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun on the status of the ASEAN aid distribution went unanswered. Agreement panned ASEAN’s decision to deliver assistance to Myanmar’s refugees through the junta was slammed by the country’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), as well as the Karen National Union (KNU), Karenni National Progressive Party and Chin National Front ethnic parties as “unacceptable” in a joint statement on May 30. The groups, which the junta says are terrorist organizations, were not extended an invitation by ASEAN to the May 6 meeting in Phnom Penh at the request of the military regime, nor was the U.N. secretary general’s special representative to Myanmar, Nolin Heza. Win Myat Aye, NUG minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management, told RFA this week that ASEAN’s plan to provide aid through the junta will not do anything for the people who are suffering the most in Myanmar. “What ASEAN is doing … is impractical. It hasn’t been successful because it never reached those who really need it for more than three months now,” he said. “NUG is now already working to meet the actual needs on the ground. We are working in cooperation with international organizations, so the information we act on will be true and we can provide the necessary help. … In order to be successful, we need to help with real action, not just words.” Win Myat Aye noted that the NUG disaster ministry had been providing shelter and medicine to refugees for the last 18 months since the coup. Aid workers helping refugees in Chin, Kayah and Kayin states, as well as some townships in Sagaing and Magway regions, told RFA that even if the junta is working to deliver assistance from ASEAN, it only controls Myanmar’s cities and its administration is broken in rural areas. KNU spokesman Pado Saw Tawney said that the junta is incapable of reaching all of the country’s refugees on its own. “There are over a million [refugees] according to available statistics. But in fact, what we believe is that there may be 2 million or more,” he said. “This situation has become a problem that cannot be solved internally. It requires cooperation with the international community. … That’s the bottom line. Nothing will happen if it is carried out by the junta alone.” The U.N. humanitarian affairs office said in its statement on Aug. 3 that the security and humanitarian aid situations in Myanmar have worsened significantly as fighting continues throughout the country. The agency said efforts to deliver assistance to refugees have been hamstrung by military restrictions on the transportation of essential goods, including food and medical supplies. Ethnic Chin refugees shelter in a jungle area after fleeing fighting between Myanmar’s junta forces and local militias in Chin state’s Mindat township, May 2021. Credit: Citizen journalist Call for stronger measures Reports of the worsening refugee situation in Myanmar came as the country’s opposition groups and analysts called on ASEAN to adopt stronger measures in its dealing with the junta following the bloc’s 55th Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Phnom Penh from July 31 to Aug. 6. During the gathering, most ASEAN member states criticized the junta for failing to implement the bloc’s agreements and for its July 25 execution of four democracy activists, including former student leader Ko Jimmy and a former lawmaker from Myanmar’s deposed National League for Democracy party….

Hong Kong police arrest four over ‘seditious’ Facebook page, radio hosts denounced

Editor3 years ago08 mins

Hong Kong police arrested four people for “seditious” social media posts in connection with a Facebook page titled “Civil servant secrets,” after the page was denounced by a newspaper backed by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for “inciting civil servants” and “smearing government policies and operations.” Two were accused of being the administrators of the group, which stopped posting on the day of the arrests, but later started up at a different address calling itself “Civil servant secrets 2.0.” The last visible post on the original page showed a police officer leaving his firearm unattended as he took a nap on some chairs. Another two were members of the Fire Services Department, and were suspected of having posted to the group, the CCP-backed Wen Wei Po newspaper reported. All four were released on bail on Wednesday, the Hong Kong Free Press cited police as saying. Political denunciations in CCP-backed media are increasingly being used to target civil society groups, journalists and NGOs in Hong Kong. The denunciations usually focus on accusations that a given organization has done something that could be in breach of a draconian national security law imposed on Hong Kong by the CCP from July 1, 2020. The merged Wen Wei Po and Ta Kung Pao website also denounced outspoken political commentator and talk-show host Poon Siu-to, political scientist Simon Shen, veteran journalist Chip Tsao and four colleagues at Commercial Radio for In an Aug. 8 report on a complaint lodged by a pro-CCP group with the city’s Communications Authority about Commercial Radio, the paper reported that the group had complained that the station is “spreading poison” and “betraying Hong Kong.” “Some show hosts have used the platform to publish anti-China speeches betraying Hong Kong and misleading its people,” the report cited the complaint as saying. “They include Poon Siu-to, Simon Shen, Chip Tsao, Jacky Fung, Jan Lamb, Michelle Lo, Ken Yuen and others from Commercial Radio,” the report said. “The group strongly urged the Communications Authority to strictly supervize the media and not allow the station to arbitrarily invite guests who spread anti-government messages and hate speech against the Hong Kong and Chinese governments,” it said. “These hosts have often made false remarks in the program, which they infiltrated with their extreme political stance and distorted values, turning it into a platform for their personal political propaganda … only making negative comments or overly politicized comments and distorted logic … when it comes to governance or China-related topics,” it quoted the complaint as saying. The group called on the authority to take action to silence their “hostile words and deeds,” and prevent them from using the station to spread “poison,” the report said. Tsang Chi-ho, who once hosted the banned satirical news show Headliner for government broadcaster RTHK, said the pro-Beijing press is now casting its net wider than ever. “This encompasses a very broad spectrum,” Tsang told RFA. “Leaving aside the political commentators, Poon Siu-to, Chip Tsao and others, they have even included Jan Lamb who is known as a comedian.” “Nobody thought they would be put in the same category, but now it seems they are,” he said. “It sends the message that anyone who talks about serious political issues will be targeted, even if you just make light-hearted, satirical comments,” Tsang said. Tsang, who was himself denounced many times by the pro-CCP media in Hong Kong before his show was shelved in 2020 for “insulting the police,” said political satire, once a ubiquitous part of Hong Kong’s media offering, appears now to be a thing of the past. He said anyone with a public platform is now vulnerable to similar denunciations, with scant support from a fast-disappearing civil society, an increasingly muzzled media, and a Legislative Council that has been purged of any political opposition. He said the denunciations appear timed to coincide with the forthcoming mid-term review of Commercial Radio’s broadcasting license. “They only approved the renewal of the license for 12 years … with a mid-term review in 2022, so perhaps they are … putting pressure on Commercial Radio to make adjustments to the style and attitude of their programming,” Tsang said. Hong Kong Journalists’ Association (HKJA) chairman Ronson Chan also expressed surprise at the list of names in the article. “If they’re even going to rectify Jacky Lam, then we have a huge problem,” Chan told RFA. “If Jacky Lam, an iconic personality on Commercial Radio, gets rectified, or silenced, or changes his approach in any way, this will naturally mean people lose confidence in the station.” He said people denounced by pro-CCP media are likely to face investigation by police under the national security law imposed on the city by Beijing from July 1, 2020. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Leak ‘partially fixed’ at Laos’ Nam Theun 1 Dam

Editor3 years ago06 mins

Dam workers in Laos are moving to contain leakage at a large hydroelectric project on the Mekong River following concerns that a breach could lead to the structure’s collapse, flooding areas downstream. Engineers working at the Nam Theun 1 Dam, located in Borikhamxay province’s Pakkading district, have now “partially stopped the leak,” an employee at the Nam Theun 1 Power Company, the dam’s developer, told RFA on Tuesday. “They’re working on this little by little and step by step. Now, only a little bit of water is oozing out,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter. Power officials had assured nervous residents in July that a video showing the dam leaking water depicted only “seepage” that would have no effect on operations or safety at the hydroelectric dam on a Mekong River tributary. Video of the apparent leakage was shared on Facebook on July 16, a week before the fourth anniversary of the Southeast Asian country’s worst-ever dam collapse, which killed more than 70 people. On July 23, 2018, billions of cubic feet of water from a tributary of the Mekong River poured over a collapsed saddle dam at the Xe Pian Xe Namnoy hydropower project in Attapeu province in southern Laos. The disaster wiped out all or part of 19 villages downstream, leaving 71 people dead and displacing 14,440 others. Some still afraid Speaking to RFA, villagers living downstream from Nam Theun 1 gave mixed reactions to the news of the dam’s partial containment, with some voicing confidence in the work being done to fix the leak, and others saying they are afraid the dam could still collapse. “They’re fixing the leak, so I’m not as afraid as I was before,” said a resident of Pakkading district’s Phonchareun village, located about eight kilometers below the dam. “They say that the leaking water was coming only from the mountain.” “During the first two weeks of the leak, a lot of us panicked because we have seen dam breaks happen before,” he said. “We’re not worried anymore,” said a resident of the district’s Phon Ngam village, living about seven kilometers below the dam and speaking like RFA’s other sources on condition of anonymity. “I think they’ve already fixed the leak now.” Another villager living just below the dam agreed. “I feel safer now. I don’t know exactly what they’re fixing, but I hope that nothing will happen.” However, other villagers living near the dam still voiced concern. “Many of us are not completely confident in the repairs being done,” one villager said. “We’re constantly monitoring the leak and are preparing for the worst so we can protect ourselves in case of an emergency.” “We’re still scared because we live below the dam,” added another resident of Phon Ngam. “They say the leaking water is coming from somewhere else and not from the dam, but we’re still worried and are taking precautions,” he said. The Nam Theun 1 Dam is a part of Laos’ plans to build dozens of hydropower projects on the Mekong River and its tributaries to become the “Battery of Southeast Asia’ by exporting electricity to neighboring countries. Though the Lao government sees power generation as a way to boost the landlocked country’s economy, the projects are controversial because of their environmental impact, displacement of villagers without adequate compensation, and questionable financial and power demand arrangements. Translated by RFA’s Lao Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

China fears losing international support for its claims on Taiwan: analysts

Editor3 years ago3 years ago014 mins

China increasingly fears losing international support for its claim that the democratic island of Taiwan and China are part of a “one China” that was split apart during the civil war and is awaiting “unification,” analysts told RFA. The Chinese government on Wednesday released a white paper on Taiwan, reiterating its stance and not withdrawing its ongoing military threat against the island, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) nor formed part of the 73-year-old People’s Republic of China. When the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) regime of Chiang Kai-shek fled there 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). 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. “The white paper … was … released amid the escalating cross-Straits tensions and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA)’s military drills against Taiwan secessionists and foreign interference,” China’s nationalistic tabloid the Global Times reported. It said the white paper’s release is “a warning to Taiwan authorities as well as external forces,” citing “analysts.” “We are one China, and Taiwan is a part of China,” it quoted the white paper as saying. “Taiwan has never been a state; its status as a part of China is unalterable,” the paper said, adding that Beijing is “committed to the historic mission of … complete reunification.” The current Taiwan government still uses the name of the KMT’s 1911 Republic of China, and operates as a sovereign state despite a lack of international diplomatic recognition or participation in global bodies like the World Health Organization (WHO). The recent visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the island on Aug. 2-3 was viewed by Beijing as a “serious provocation,” and China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a series of military exercises that encroached into waters that were previously regarded as Taiwan’s. This week, Beijing reacted strongly to a statement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi Yoshimasa, in which they appeared to qualify their support for the “one China” policy, which Beijing demands as a prerequisite for diplomatic ties. Children pose for photos at the 68-nautical-mile scenic spot, the closest point in mainland China to the island of Taiwan, in Pingtan in southeastern China’s Fujian Province, Aug. 5, 2022. Credit: AP No change in policy Blinken, Wong and Hayashi condemned China’s launch of ballistic missiles — five of which Japan has said landed in its waters — which they said had raised tensions and destabilized the region. In a joint statement, they called on China to cease its military exercises around Taiwan immediately. “There is no change in the respective one China policies, where applicable, and basic positions on Taiwan of Australia, Japan, or the United States,” the statement concluded. Asked to confirm whether the addition of the words “where applicable” was new for Washington, a State Department spokesperson on Tuesday replied: “I’d just refer you back to the statement.” President Joe Biden has previously said China is ‘flirting with danger’ with its ongoing threat to annex Taiwan, saying the U.S. is committed to defending the island in the event of a Chinese invasion, a statement U.S. officials later framed as an interpretation of the existing terms of the Taiwan Relations Act requiring Washington to ensure the island has the means to defend itself. Chinese foreign minister Wang Wenbin hit out at the joint statement from Washington, Canberra and Tokyo, saying countries shouldn’t add clauses that contextualize their support for the one China policy. “Certain countries have unilaterally added preconditions and provisos to the one-China policy in an attempt to distort, fudge and hollow out their one-China commitment,” Wang told journalists on Tuesday. “This is illegal, null and void … [and] also a challenge to the post-WWII world order.” “Attempts to challenge the one-China principle, international rule of law and the international order are bound to be rejected by the international community and get nowhere,” Wang said. Ding Shufan, an honorary professor at Taiwan’s National Chengchi University, said that, in fact, U.S. policy in Taiwan has always been conditional on the relatively peaceful status quo that has been seen since over recent decades. “It’s possible that [the three countries] were somewhat deliberate in adding this,” Ding said. “[It means] that if the situation in the Taiwan Strait gets out of control, [their support for] the one China policy could change.” Chung Chi-tung, an assistant researcher at the National Defense Security Research Institute, said the military exercises were a form of protest over the deterioration in the U.S.-China relationship begun under the Trump administration, which eventually removed a ban on high-ranking visits to Taiwan by U.S. officials that wasn’t reinstated under President Joe Biden. “Everyone has been looking at the military situation, but they have ignored the fact that the most important thing it shows about China is how worried it is by this setback in relations with the U.S., and by the internationalization of the Taiwan Strait issue,” Chung told RFA. Counterproductive stance He said Beijing has been explicit about this right from the start, mentioning the “hollowing out” of international support for the one China policy. “China wants to put a stop to the internationalization of the Taiwan Strait issue that was caused by Pelosi’s visit,” Chung said. “This is counterproductive, because the focus of global attention is the U.S.’ one China policy, which is in conflict with China’s [formulation of] the principle.” Chung said no other countries made any comment at all during the Taiwan Strait missile crisis of 1995 and 1996, but this time even Southeast Asian nations and members of ASEAN have criticized China’s actions and taken Washington’s side. Chang Meng-jen, convenor of the diplomacy and international…

More than a thousand villagers flee Sagaing region battle

Editor3 years ago03 mins

Two People’s Defense Force members died in fighting with Myanmar junta troops in Sagaing region’s Ye-U township. A local PDF commander confirmed they were both members of the local defense force. The PDF said at least 10 junta troops also died but RFA could not independently verify this. More than 1,000 locals fled Kone Thar, Ywar Thit, Nga Pyaw Taw and Kun Ohn villages after air raids on Wednesday, residents told RFA. A Kone Thar resident, who declined to be named for security reasons, said during the battle in the village the junta used helicopter gunships and fired on the village for around 30 minutes. Fighting broke out when junta soldiers arrived from Nyaung Hla and Mu Son villages. Helicopters were brought in to help the soldiers, arriving twice in the morning to drop off troops and fire on PDF members. The local resident told RFA the gunfire was not just aimed at the militia but also damaged roads and a hospital. Although most of the residents were able to flee, some elderly people were left in Kone Thar. Locals said they don’t know how many residents were killed because they were afraid to return to the village until the fighting died down. They said around 100 junta soldiers are still in Kone Thar. RFA’s calls to Sagaing region’s Military Council Minister of Social Affairs Aye Hlaing went unanswered. Military Council spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, said in the past the military council forces only attack villages in Sagaing Region that are training and hiding members of the PDFs. Internet and telephone access in Ye-U township is often cut off when junta forces carry out raids, locals told RFA. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) said more than 1.2 million people have fled their homes across Myanmar between the Feb. 1, 2021 coup and Aug. 3.

Taiwan hits out at fake news about Chinese warship

Editor3 years ago06 mins

One of the most widely used photos of the recent drills by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) around Taiwan turned out to be the latest “fake news” in China’s disinformation campaign against the democratic island, a Taiwanese fact-checking organization has claimed. The photo, distributed by Chinese state news agency Xinhua, depicts a PLA soldier observing military drills in the waters near Taiwan through a pair of binoculars. In the background, a Taiwanese warship without a hull number is clearly visible. Next to it is a chimney, later identified as the smokestack of the Ho Ping Power Plant in Hualien County on the east coast of Taiwan. The Xinhua photo shows many irregularities. CREDIT: Taiwan FactCheck Center The Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC), a Taipei-based independent organization, conducted a thorough examination of Xinhua’s photo and published the findings on its website on Tuesday. It said there are too many irregularities, calling the proportions of objects in the photo “unreasonable” and saying there were obvious signs of manipulation such as the lack of a hull number on the alleged Taiwanese warship and its outline, which TFC said was “too clean.” Another photo released by Xinhua in the same batch clearly shows hull number 935 of the Lan Yang, a Taiwanese Navy Chi Yang-class frigate. Experts and analysts consulted by TFC concluded that the photo is a composite of different images. Xinhua said the photo was taken on Aug. 5, 2022, the second day of the unprecedented four-day drills conducted by the PLA Eastern Theater Command. The photo led to widespread speculation on Chinese internet forums that a PLA Navy (PLAN) destroyer had come closer than 12 kilometers (6.5 nautical miles) from the coast of Hualien, well within Taiwan’s territorial waters. A state’s territorial waters are defined by maritime boundaries 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) from its coast. Several Chinese and Taiwanese media outlets reported that PLAN destroyer Nanjing, where the soldier’s photo was taken, was only 11.78 kilometers from the coast of Hualien and the Ho Ping Power Station on Friday morning. The hull number of Taiwanese warship visible on the right, is not present in the image on the left. CREDIT: Taiwan FactCheck Center ‘Hybrid warfare’ The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense dismissed the news, describing it as “disinformation.” “No PLAN vessel has entered our territorial waters since August 4 when the PLA drill started,” the Ministry said on Twitter. China has stepped up its disinformation campaign and cyberattacks as part of “hybrid warfare” against Taiwan. Hybrid warfare is a combination of conventional military actions on the ground and hacks, or disinformation campaigns, designed to attack public morale and sow confusion. Maj. Gen. Chen Yu-lin, deputy director of the Political and War Bureau of Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said earlier this week that the current wave of “cognitive operations” started even before the military drills were announced as a response to U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit. Pelosi is the most senior U.S. official to visit the island in 25 years. Her visit was condemned by Beijing as a “serious violation of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Chen Hui-min, TFC’s editor-in-chief, told RFA his organization had detected a 30-40% increase in fake reports online since Pelosi’s visit. “The biggest difference [from the past] is that it seems to be spreading from English-language Twitter,” Chen said. The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday it had been hit by 170 million cyber attacks per minute during the height of the tension last week. China considers Taiwan a Chinese province that must be reunified with the mainland at all costs. Meanwhile only two percent of 23.5 million Taiwanese people identified themselves as Chinese, down from 25 percent three decades ago, according to a new study by Taiwan’s National Chengchi University.

Vietnamese human rights journalist’s appeal set for Aug. 25

Editor3 years ago08 mins

The appeal hearing for a journalist, jailed for nine years for “anti-state propaganda” will take place in two weeks’ time. One of Pham Doan Trang’s lawyers told RFA the outcome depends on whether or not she pleads guilty at Hanoi’s High People’s Court on Aug. 25. Trang, 44, was jailed in Dec. last year for breaching Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code, which is often used to silence activists. Her appeal will be held at the headquarters of the high court in Hanoi’s Cau Giay district. Ngo Anh Tuan was one of the lawyers who defended Trang in her original trial and will also represent her at the appeal hearing. He said his client has always asserted her innocence so he thinks it is unlikely the sentence will be reduced. “Ms. Trang has pleaded not guilty from the outset, up until now,” he told RFA. “We agree with her. In the defense’s view Ms. Trang is not guilty so there is no need to ask for a reduction in the sentence.” “The probability of the first-instance judgment being upheld is over 90% because, in cases like this as we’ve shown many times, it’s about attitude.” “That means if our clients ask for mercy, it’s likely to be acceptable. However, if they don’t ask for mercy the possibility of upholding the sentence is very high. Ms. Trang’s case is no exception.” The activist’s mother, Bui Thi Thien Can, told reporters she did not know if she would be able to attend the public appeals court, even though she was at the original hearing, because she doesn’t think it will achieve anything. “If it was other countries they would probably have a bit of respect for international pressure but the Vietnamese communists are very stubborn,” she said. “As soon as Trang was arrested, as well as before the first-instance hearing, many foreign embassies called on Vietnam to release Trang immediately and unconditionally, but the regime ignored them.” Can said her daughter has not been allowed to see her relatives since her arrest more than 22 months ago. They have also been refused permission to send her meals, which is allowed in many cases. Instead they have to buy it from the detention center’s canteen for the Hanoi police to give to her. Trang is accused of “making, storing and circulating documents and articles with content aimed at opposing the State of Vietnam,” between Nov. 2017 and Dec. 2018, according to the original indictment. Trang is also accused of possessing documents titled: “A Brief Report on Vietnam’s marine environmental disaster,” “General assessment of the human rights situation in Vietnam,” and “Report on a review of the 2016 law on religion and belief related to exercising the right to freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam.” The Hanoi People’s Procuratorate said the documents contained “psychological warfare rhetoric, spreading fabricated news to cause confusion among the people, and propagating disinformation about guidelines and policies of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” Trang is also accused of giving interviews to foreign broadcasters such as the BBC Vietnamese Service and Radio Free Asia containing “content that distorts the State’s policies.” Trang co-founded Luat Khoa, an English-language magazine and newspaper. She also wrote many political books such as “Politics for Ordinary Citizens” and “Handbook for Prisoners’ Families.” She also worked at one point for the state-controlled VietnamNet newswire. She was arrested on Oct. 6, 2020, just hours after the annual Vietnam-U.S. Human Rights Dialogue. The arrest was related to her co-authoring the Dong Tam Report, published in English and Vietnamese. She wrote about land disputes in Hanoi’s Dong Tam commune and the raid by some 3,000 police in the early hours of Jan.9, 2020, leading to the death of spiritual leader Le Dinh Kinh and the arrests of dozens of people. Trang has been detained and beaten by the Vietnamese police many times. After being beaten by security forces during a protest against the Hanoi government’s felling of thousands of old trees in Hanoi’s city center in May 2015, her leg was broken and she had to use crutches. Trang’s mother said her daughter was beaten many times during the investigation both by investigating officers and fellow prisoners. Trang suffers from heavy and prolonged menstrual bleeding, or menorrhagia, low blood pressure, and leg pain, but does not receive adequate medical treatment. Trang has been awarded many prestigious international awards for her activities in promoting human rights and freedom of the press, including the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award and the Press Freedom Prize from Reporters Without Borders. She also won the Homo Homini (human to human) Award from the Czech Republic’s People in Need, the Media Freedom Award 2022 presented by the Canadian and U.K. governments, last year’s Martin Ennals Award for championing freedom of expression and this year’s International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

North Korea launches drive to shame children who neglect war veteran parents

Editor3 years ago07 mins

Authorities in North Korea are working to identify citizens who neglect their Korean War veteran parents, sometimes stripping those who aren’t living up to their familial obligations of their posts within the ruling party, sources inside the country said. As of the beginning of August, authorities began a project to determine where the children of the 1950-53 Korean War veterans live, a resident of South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA on Sunday. RFA reported in July that a number of elderly veterans had been found to be malnourished and suffering COVID-19 symptoms such as high fevers and coughing. Party officials who neglect their war veteran parents are being accused of filial impiety and removed from their positions, the woman said. But some North Koreans say the government’s campaign is an exercise in blame shifting, accusing the war veterans’ children of providing insufficient support when the government itself should be doing more. The project came about after the 8th National Conference of War Veterans in Pyongyang on July 27, which commemorated the armistice that ended the fighting. The Workers’ Party of North Korea issued a directive to take care of war veterans and to treat them well in society. During their investigation, authorities found a few county residents failing to carry out their obligations by living apart from their parents who are elderly war veterans, the woman said. They lost their jobs as a result. “Four people were caught, including one [party] secretary in the lathe work department at the Chuncheon River Machinery Factory and three cell secretaries in the textile factory,” the source said. “Their positions were taken away the next day.” Cell secretaries are among North Korea’s elite society, typically overseeing five to 30 party members in their cell, the main unit that links the party to the masses, according to a 2021 report by NK News. The four workers have been given a second chance to fulfill their family duties, however. “Six months of revolutionary measures were given,” said the source, referring to a punishment by authorities to make offenders learn the revolutionary ideology propagated by North Korea’s regime. After a stint working as laborers — considered a disgrace in North Korea — and after they move their veteran parents into their homes, the shamed North Koreans will be allowed to resume their previous positions, the woman said. North Korean authorities decided not to dismiss them from their positions because their veteran parents might complain that such a punishment would be too harsh, the woman said. People of national merit Though North Korean veterans are classified as people of national merit and are eligible for government provisions for food and living expenses, they still suffer from a lack of societal support, said a resident of North Pyongan province. The party committee in Chongju, one of the province’s main cities, also began a similar investigation at the beginning of August through the heads of neighborhood-watch units to determine whether there are adult children not serving or caring for their war veteran parents, he told RFA on Sunday. Five farmers who live with their elderly veteran parents at the Osong village cooperative farm were found to be “examples of poor filial piety” because they could not provide them with three meals each day due to financial hardship, said the source, who also declined to be named so as to speak freely. The farmers also locked in their elderly veteran parents who were suffering from dementia, so they could do their work, he said. “The farmers were called to the county party base and wrote self-critical confessions that they were undutiful to their veteran parents,” the source said. “They were released after receiving ideological education that they should serve their veteran parents whom the party cherishes.” But other residents aware of the situation have asked, “Who doesn’t want to serve a warm meal to their parents?” said the man. They then criticized the authorities for not taking responsibility for the lives of veterans and providing for them, instead placing the full burden on their children who have their own problems making ends meet. “They complain that they are making the poor and elderly war veterans the burdens of their children rather than of the state,” he said. Translated by Claire Shinyoung Oh Lee for RFA Korean. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

China-led rare earth mining in Myanmar fuels rights abuses, pollution: report

Editor3 years ago09 mins

China’s outsourcing of rare earth mining to Myanmar has prompted a rapid expansion of the industry there, fuelling human rights abuses, damaging the environment and propping up pro-juna militias, according to a new report published Tuesday by rights group Global Witness. The report, entitled “Myanmar’s Poisoned Mountains,” used satellite imagery to determine that what amounted to a “handful” of rare earth mines in Myanmar’s Kachin state in 2016 had ballooned to more than 2,700 mining collection pools at almost 300 separate locations, covering an area the size of Singapore, by March 2022 — slightly more than a year after the military seized power in a coup. Global Witness found that China had outsourced much of its industry across the border to a remote corner of Kachin state, which it said is now the world’s largest source of the minerals used in green energy technologies, smartphones and home electronics. “Our investigation reveals that China has effectively offshored this toxic industry to Myanmar over the past few years, with terrible consequences for local communities and the environment,” Global Witness CEO Mike Davis said in a statement accompanying the release of the report. The local warlord in charge of the mining territory, Zakhung Ting Ying, has become the “central broker” of Myanmar’s rare earth industry, the report said, along with other leaders of militias loyal to the military regime, making backroom deals with Chinese companies that are illegal under the country’s laws. It said that his militia’s links to the junta mean “there is a high risk” that revenues from rare earth mining are being used to fund the military’s human rights abuses and crushing of dissent. Rights groups say security forces have killed at least 2,167 civilians and arrested more than 15,000 others since the Feb. 1, 2021, coup, mostly during peaceful anti-junta protests. “Rare earth mining is the latest natural resource heist by Myanmar’s military, which has funded itself for decades by looting the country’s rich natural resources, including the multi-billion-dollar jade, gemstone and timber industries,” Davis said. “Since the 2021 coup, the regime has relied on natural resources to sustain its illegal power grab and with demand for rare earths booming, the military will no doubt be spotting an opportunity to fill its coffers and fund its abuses,” he added. A rare earth mining operation in Kachin state, Myanmar, March 2022. Credit: Citizen journalist Global Witness noted that the processes used to extract heavy rare earth minerals have polluted local ecosystems, destroyed livelihoods and poisoned drinking water. It said multiple health issues reported near the rare earth mines in China have also been reported by residents living close to the mines in Myanmar. Meanwhile, civil society groups and community members — including indigenous people — who speak out against the illegal industry or refuse to give up their land to make way for new mines face threats from the militias who run the area, the report said. Supply chain at risk Global Witness said that its findings come amid a huge increase in demand for the minerals as production of green energy technologies ramps up. Sales of processed rare earth minerals for magnet productions are expected to triple by 2035. The group warned of a high risk that the minerals are finding their way into the supply chains of major household name companies that use heavy rare earths in their products including Tesla, Volkswagen, General Motors, Siemens and Mitsubishi Electric. Davis said the report’s findings demonstrate the need for the international community to broaden sanctions against the junta to include rare earth minerals. “The disturbing reality is that the cash that is fuelling the environmental and human rights abuses caused by Myanmar’s rare earth mining industry ultimately stems from the global push to scale up renewables,” he said. “As the climate crisis accelerates and demand for these low-carbon technologies skyrocket, today’s findings must be a wake-up call that the green energy transition cannot come at the cost of communities in resource-rich countries, and must instead be equitable and sustainable, prioritizing the rights of those who are most impacted.” Rare earth ores [left] are burned down before being transported from Kachin state to China. At right, sacks of rare earth ores await transport to China. Credit: Global Witness via AP Global Witness called on companies to stop mining heavy rare earths in Myanmar and ensure that minerals from the country do not enter the global supply chain. It also urged governments to impose import restrictions for rare earths produced in Myanmar, impose sanctions on armed actors illegally profiting from the industry, and introduce stronger policies to reduce the harms associated with extracting the minerals. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that about 240,000 tons of rare earth minerals were mined globally in 2020, with China accounting for 140,000 tons, followed by the United States with 38,000 tons and Myanmar with 30,000 tons. Though China is the world’s largest producer of rare earth minerals, it buys the ore from neighboring Myanmar, exploiting its cheaper labor. Myanmar exported more than 140,000 tons of rare earth deposits to China, worth more than U.S. $1 billion between May 2017 and October 2021, according to China’s State Taxation Administration. In this early 2022 image from video, a creek in Myanmar’s Kachin state is lined with trash, pipes and other construction materials from a former rare earth mining site. Local villagers have said water from the creek is no longer usable for drinking or growing crops and that their skin itches after being exposed to water near rare earth mining sites. Credit: Global Witness via AP

Family presses for answers in death of Cambodian man after gambling raid

Editor3 years ago04 mins

The family of a 47-year-old Cambodian man is seeking justice after he ducked into a café to avoid a rainstorm, got caught in a police raid on on-line cockfight gambling, and suffocated during a rough interrogation, his daughter said Tuesday. Soung Dorn, who was deputy chief of Rong village in the central province of Kampong Thom, died Sunday evening at the hands of a military policeman who pressed his arm over his windpipe until he stopped breathing, Nearadey Din told RFA after reporting the death in an appeal for justice on Facebook. “As he came from a meeting, it was raining and he took shelter in a coffee shop. Then a military police officer grabbed my father and pressed his neck until he could not breathe, and he died,” she wrote on Facebook. I’m still so sad and shocked, I feel like fainting,” she told RFA Khmer. “This should not have happened to my father. They can make an arrest, but why make people die?” Nearadey appealed on Facebook to Prime Minister Hun Sen and the chair of the Cambodian Huma Rights Commission “to seek justice for our father, who has suffered atrocities and such inhumanity.” In response to the incident, the commander of the National Gendarmerie, Sao Sokha, told local media that he had ordered the suspension of officials involved in the arrest on Sunday and set up a commission to investigate the case immediately. But Nearadey told RFA on August 9 that her family and villagers reject the police forensic results that said Soung Dorn died of a heart attack. She said that her father was healthy and never had heart disease or any other disease. People shouted that he did not look good and suggested taking him to the hospital first, and arrest of him later, but they refused to do so,” said Nearadey, referring to military police. Nearadey also rejected claims by National Gendarmerie spokesman Eng Hy, who wrote on his Facebook page that officers had tried resuscitate her father with CPR. She said the military police left her father to die and then took him to a district hospital.

Category: World