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Category: World

PM Hun Sen threatens Cambodian opposition after shoe-throwing incident in Washington

Editor06 mins

Cambodia’s Prime Minister Hun Sen blasted a man who threw a shoe at him last week in Washington, saying that if the U.S. fails to condemn him, then similar attacks against his political opponents in Cambodia would be justified. “If the U.S considers shoe-throwing as freedom of expression, it is encouraging [the practice] in other countries,” said Hun Sen, a strongman who has ruled Cambodia since 1985 and who allows little opposition or criticism. “Now I am concerned for the safety of the opposition party leaders,” he said. “Here we can also throw shoes at opposition party leaders’ heads in Cambodia,” he said. As the 69-year-old Hun Sen prepared to meet supporters in Washington last week on the eve of a summit of U.S.-Southeast Asian leaders, a retired Cambodian soldier, Ouk Touch, flung a shoe that whizzed by his head and missed him. The incident at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel on May 11 was caught on video and went viral on social media. Ouk Touch, 72, a resident of California, last week told RFA that he had been planning the attack for quite some time and he hoped that Hun Sen would be humiliated.  He said family members died in a 1997 grenade attack on rival politicians in Hun Sen’s governing coalition that has been widely attributed to the prime minister’s supporters. He was able to talk his way into the group of Hun Sen supporters outside the hotel. He said Hun Sen’s bodyguards jumped toward him and attempted to beat him, but U.S. security officials intervened and urged him to leave the scene. Scene of an incident in which former Cambodian soldier Ouk Touch threw a shoe at visiting Prime Minister Hun Sen in Washington, D.C., May 11, 2022. Credit: Screengrab of official TV. Upon his return to Cambodia from the U.S. summit with leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Hun Sen lashed out at Ouk Touch, saying the attack was premeditated. He said he would not be sending a diplomatic note to the U.S. over the issue, but promised that Ouk Touch would be prosecuted if he were to return to Cambodia. In February opposition activist Sam Sokha was released after serving a four-year prison term for throwing her shoe at a poster of Hun Sen and sharing it on social media. She is among scores of activist jailed in a sweeping crackdown on opponents of Hun Sen, the media and civic society groups that begin in 2017. Sam Sokha told RFA’s Khmer Service that Hun Sen “should be more patient and should not imprison people without finding out the reason” they protest, she said. “Pertaining to my case, [he] should have asked me why I did it. He should have tried to find out what the cause of the dissatisfaction is.” Throwing a shoe is nothing compared to the suffering of innocent people under Hun Sen’s rule, Khmer-American human rights lawyer Seng Theary told RFA’s Khmer Service. “It is an individual’s frustration, but the incident represents many people’s feelings,” she said. Exiled political analyst Kim Sok told RFA he is saddened that Hun Sen is taking the incident seriously and has allowed it to incite hatred among people and dilute Cambodia’s diplomatic relationships. The analyst, who took asylum in Finland to avoid arrest in the 2017 crackdown, said he feared concern Hun Sen’s supporters would start attacking opposition leaders. Many opposition figures are in hiding, exile or prison. “Any comment from Hun Sen should not be taken for granted. It is incitement. It will happen because Hun Sen is an influential figure managing all issues in the country,” he said.  Translate by Samean Yun. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Tibetans forced to move to make way for Chinese power plant

Editor03 mins

Residents of a Tibetan village in northwestern China’s Qinghai province are being forced from their homes to make way for a government-ordered hydropower station, with monks living in a nearby monastery also told to leave, Tibetan sources say. Monks at the Atsok Gon Dechen Choekhor Ling monastery in Tsolho (in Chinese, Hainan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture have petitioned Chinese officials to rescind the order, a Tibetan resident of the area told RFA this week. “But the Chinese local supervisor and other authorities have been visiting the Tibetans and warning them to relocate regardless of the cost,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Monks from the monastery are also being summoned for meetings and ordered to agree to relocation,” the source added. Construction of the power plant was authorized by the Chinese government, with supervision of the work assigned to a company called Machu after an investigation into the project’s viability concluded in December 2021, RFA’s source said. Dechen Choekhor Ling monastery was founded in 1889 and is currently home to 157 monks, with monks under the age of 18 forbidden since 2021 by government order to live or study there, sources say. Frequent standoffs Chinese development projects in Tibetan areas have led to frequent standoffs with Tibetans who accuse Chinese firms and local officials of improperly seizing land and disrupting the lives of local people. Many projects result in violent suppression and the detention of project organizers, with intense pressure put on local populations to comply with government wishes. The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, an NGO based in Dharamsala, India, has reported that China’s development drives in Tibet have pulled the region closer to economic and cultural integration with Beijing. Projects have failed to benefit the Tibetans themselves, however, with rural Tibetans often moved from traditional grazing lands and into urban areas where the best jobs are held by Han Chinese. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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Interview: ‘All they’ve learned is how better to control people’

Editor016 mins

In April 2020, independent Chinese author Murong Xuecun traveled to Wuhan under lockdown, quietly interviewing people from the front line of the emerging COVID-19 pandemic. In his newly published work, “Deadly Quiet City,” his conversations with a number of people from an exhausted doctor in a small hospital to an unlicensed motorcycle taxi-driver, to a citizen journalist, are recorded for the world to read. He spoke to Jane Tang of RFA’s Mandarin Service about the experience, and about the ongoing lockdown in Shanghai: RFA: During the lockdown in Shanghai, we have seen a lot of grass-roots creativity, including music, videos, and texts, emerge from the experience. How does this output compare with what you saw during Wuhan’s lockdown? Murong Xuecun: First, this content deals more with the lives of the middle class: exhibitions, fashion shows … most of the people and things mentioned are part of the middle-class community. It makes me even more worried about the lives of people lower down the social ladder in Shanghai; how are the migrant workers managing? What about the elderly who live alone? That’s not so visible. Second, there were a few citizen journalists working out of Wuhan, as well as a lot of people shooting and gathering footage, and several documentaries were released afterwards. But I don’t think that’s been possible in Shanghai, because very few people in the city have been allowed to go out, apart from white people, the police and volunteers. But back when I arrived in Wuhan, and when [now-jailed citizen journalist] Zhang Zhan got there on Feb. 1, there was still some freedom of movement. We were able to move around freely, conduct interviews and shoot footage. This time in Shanghai, pretty much everybody has been confined to their home. Third, a lot of content is presented in a mocking way. This sarcasm is actually something of a last resort. In fact, many of this content, these videos and posts are asking the same question: how did Shanghai get to this state today, which is so different from Wuhan at the beginning [of the pandemic]. At that time, there was more grief and anger in Wuhan, and there was a layer of confusion and shock in Shanghai. How did Shanghai get here? RFA: So you think that Shanghai has stricter restrictions on shooting and creative work this time around? Have you seen any non-fiction works along the lines of Wuhan Diary by Fang Fang? Murong Xuecun: There are a lot of parodies. These don’t take long to do. To actually write something like Wuhan Diary requires a long period of observation, material gathering and then writing. The current situation doesn’t allow for a process like that, and anyway, I think it would be deleted by the next day. There are actually more writers in Shanghai, but so far I haven’t seen any works like Fang Fang’s diary. This tells us that Shanghai’s lockdown restrictions, controls, and suppression  [of public speech] are much stricter than Wuhan’s were. Let me give you an example. When Wuhan needed to transport patients and their close contacts [to isolation facilities], it relied on volunteers. In Shanghai, the police are doing it. When Wuhan was locked down on Jan. 23, 2020, we still didn’t have the QR code. But by the time Shanghai locked down, we were living in a world governed by them. Everyone is now controlled by big data, and everyone’s whereabouts are available at a glance. Also, the shortage of supplies in Shanghai is far worse than it was in Wuhan back then. I witnessed all kinds of misery back then in Wuhan, but the levels of misery and cruelty in Shanghai have been far greater than in the Wuhan lockdown of 2020. RFA: The material for your book Deadly Quiet City came from first-hand interviews in Wuhan. How did you get into the city? Many citizen journalists ran into trouble trying to get in. How did your interviews and writing go? Murong Xuecun: I arrived on April 6, 2020, they lifted the lockdown on the 8th, and I left on May 7. I had been there a month when the secret police called me and said they knew my whereabouts. I had already interviewed a lot of people by then, and I was afraid that that work would be lost, so I left … soon after they called me. RFA: So did you go back to Beijing to write the book? Murong Xuecun: I didn’t dare to go back to Beijing, because I was one of those old ‘tea drinkers’ who was often under surveillance by the secret police, or called to ‘drink tea’ or summoned for interrogation. So I holed up in Mount Emei and finished writing the book there. It was very exciting, that time. I would send each chapter to a friend of mine overseas as soon as I finished it, so he could back it up for me, then I’d delete it from my hard drive. RFA: Were the locals willing to talk to you during your visit to Wuhan? Murong Xuecun: They fell into two types: regular citizens were very willing to be interviewed; and community officials, doctors and nurses, who were extremely reluctant. For example, I called one residential community official several times, and he just told me straight that they weren’t allowed to give interviews. It was the same with the doctors. One doctor from Tongji Hospital hesitated for several days, then finally told me, sorry, friend, but it’s really not a good time, so we left it. I could feel that he felt a strong need to tell me about his experiences and everything he knew, but he could also have been under a lot of [political] pressure [to keep quiet]. I said: “Well, I can understand where you’re coming from, and hopefully one day you can tell me about your experiences.” “He sighed softly and said: “It’s a shame. I hope too.” These conversations told me that all of these officials, doctors and…

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Vietnamese blogger sent back to jail after three years in mental hospital

Editor08 mins

A Vietnamese blogger held for three years in a mental hospital while awaiting trial for criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state has been sent back to his former detention center on the orders of the Hanoi Police Investigation Agency, RFA has learned. Le Anh Hung, a member of the online Brotherhood of Democracy advocacy group, was returned to the agency’s Detention Center No. 1 on May 10 following a decision made the day before by police investigators, his mother Tran Thi Nem told RFA in a recent interview. His trial will now be held within a few months, Nem said. Hung, who had logged for Voice of America, was arrested on July 5, 2018 on a charge of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s criminal code. If convicted at trial, he could serve up to seven years in prison. He was transferred in April 2019 for “observation and treatment” from jail to Hanoi’s National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, where he was beaten and forcibly injected with psychiatric drugs, including a powerful sedative that left him unconscious, to treat his supposed mental illness, sources told RFA in earlier reports. While held in hospital, Hung was confined with 15 female patients, journalist Huynh Ngoc Chenh—the husband of prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thuy Hanh, also held in the Institute—told RFA following a May 6 meeting with his wife. However, security guards and hospital staff had prevented Hanh and Hung from speaking with each other, Chenh said. Prisoners at Gia Trung Detention Center are shown returning from work in an undated photo. Photo: State Media Held in cells all day Meanwhile, political prisoners held at the Gia Trung Detention Center in Dak Lak, a province in Vietnam’s central highlands, are being kept in their cells all day, with only an hour allowed outside for meals, for refusing forced-labor assignments, prisoners’ relatives said. Prisoners convicted of political crimes have been singled out for harsh treatment at the center, said Le Khanh Duy—the former husband of prisoner of conscience Huynh Thuc Vy—citing a phone call made by Huynh to family members on May 16. “Vy told me that political prisoners at the detention center are being persecuted,” Le Khanh Duy told RFA this week. “They are locked up in their cells all day for refusing to go to work, and are allowed outside for only one hour each day to get their meals.” Vy, who is serving a 33-month jail term for “offending the national flag” under Article 276 of Vietnam’s criminal code, also reported being harassed by common prisoners suspected of acting under orders to make political prisoners’ lives “more difficult,” Duy said. Other political prisoners held at Gia Trung include Nguyen Trung Ton, a member of the Brotherhood for Democracy now serving a 12-year jail sentence, and Luu Van Vinh, a member of the Vietnam National Self-Determination Coalition, now serving a 15-year term. Phan Van Thu, the leader of a religious group called Council for the Laws and Public Affairs of Bia Son, named for a mountain in coastal Vietnam’s Phu Yen province, is also serving a life sentence at the center. Speaking to RFA, Luu Van Vinh’s wife Le Thi Thap said her husband had previously been allowed to leave his cell twice a day, but now was under heavier restrictions. “Vinh and some other inmates don’t go out to work, and therefore had to stay in their cells while others work outside, but they were allowed to go out for a while at noon and then later in the afternoon,” Thap said. “But I’ve heard that things have gotten worse since last month, so now I want to visit my husband and ask him about this in person,” she said. ‘No forced labor’ The use of forced labor in Vietnamese prisons has been strongly criticized by human rights organizations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. In August 2020, the Vietnam Times Magazine, a publication of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO) published an article titled “There is no forced labor in Vietnam.” Making arrangements for prisoners to work is “a demonstration of the humanity in the policy of the Vietnamese Government and Communist Party,” wrote the article’s author Nguyen Van Dieu, an official of the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Detention Center Management. Calls seeking comment from the Gia Trung Detention Center rang unanswered this week. Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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California church shooter in Taiwan ‘peaceful reunification’ group linked to Beijing

Editor09 mins

California church killer David Chou has close ties to a Taiwan ‘peaceful reunification’ group linked to the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, a body that has been designated a representative of a foreign government by the U.S. government, according to a report on its founding ceremony. Chou, who opened fire on a Taiwanese lunch banquet at the Geneva Presbyterian Church in Irvine, CA on May 15, killing one person and injuring five others before being restrained, was pictured at the setting up of the Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification on April 2, 2019, holding up a banner calling for the “eradication of pro-independence demons,” according to an April 3, 2019 report on the Chinese LVNews website. The group — whose president Gu Yawen warned the people of Taiwan that ‘peaceful unification is the only way to avoid war’ in his inaugural speech — is a local branch of the National Association for China’s Peaceful Unification (NACPU) under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s United Front Work Department. “The United Front Work Department (UFWD) is the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organ tasked with co-opting and neutralizing threats to the party’s rule and spreading its influence and propaganda overseas,” the State Department said in a statement in 2020. “The CCP regards this party apparatus as a ‘magic weapon’ to advance Beijing’s policies.” In the same statement, the State Department designated NACPU a foreign mission of China. “The UFWD … uses front organizations like the NACPU to advance [Beijing]’s propaganda and malign influence,” then Secretary of State Mike Pence said. Taiwan has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China, but its nationals are regarded as Chinese citizens under another administration by Beijing. The majority of Taiwan’s 23 million people say they have no wish to give up their country’s sovereignty or lose their democratic way of life under Chinese rule, but CCP leader Xi Jinping has said “unification” is inevitable, and has refused to rule out the use of military force to annex the democratic island. David Chou holds up a banner calling for the ‘eradication of pro-independence demons,’ at the Las Vegas Association for China’s Peaceful Unification, April 2, 2019. Credit: LVNews ‘Politically motivated hate’ Orange County police said Chou’s actions were fueled by “politically motivated hate.” Sheriff-Coroner Don Barnes said Chou — who reports said was born in Taiwan to parents from China — had left a note in his car showing he didn’t agree that “Taiwan is a country independent of China,” and had expressed dissatisfaction with political tensions across the Taiwan Strait. Chou, 68, of Las Vegas, has been arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after he entered Geneva Presbyterian Church and fired multiple rounds, striking six victims, Orange County police said. “At the time of the shooting, members of the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church, which has had a space at the church since 2009, were having a lunch banquet to welcome a pastor who had recently returned from Taiwan,” it said. Five victims sustained gunshot wounds and were taken to local hospitals for treatment, while the deceased was identified as Dr. John Cheng, 52, pronounced dead at the scene after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds when he intervened and tackled the suspect, enabling others to rush in and hogtie Chou to prevent further carnage. “There is no doubt that Dr. Cheng’s actions that day saved the lives of many other church members. He is a hero and will be remembered by this community as such,” Barnes told journalists, adding that Chou appeared to have superglued the church doors shut and had deposited spare ammunition and Molotov cocktails around the building ahead of time. The five injured victims, four men and a woman aged 66-92, were taken to a local hospital, where they are being treated, police said. The banquet had been in honor of pastor Chang Hsuan-hsin, who had returned to the church after a two-year absence, local pastor Hwang Chun-sheng told RFA. “Our pastor and elder hadn’t been back to California for more than two years, so most of the older members of the church wanted to go to church for that day’s service,” Hwang said. “[Dr. Cheng] decided he would bring his mother to church [for the occasion]. ‘Violence is never the answer’ Chien Ta, a former member of a NACPU branch in the U.S., said more violence could occur over the status of Taiwan, which is a sovereign country formally ruled by the 1911 Republic of China founded by Sun Yat-sen whose government fled to the island after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong’s communists in China. “If we don’t deal with this kind of nationalistic hatred, we will definitely see more intense conflicts on the issue of unification or independence in future,” Chien warned. Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen, who has insisted that any dialogue must be on a government-to-government basis, expressed her condolences to Cheng’s family via social media. “I want to convey my sincere condolences on the death of Dr. John Cheng & my hopes for a prompt recovery for those injured in the shooting at the Irvine Taiwanese Presbyterian Church in California,” Tsai tweeted. “Violence is never the answer.” Taiwanese lawmaker for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Lin Ching-yee said via Facebook that the shooting was driven by a “genocidal” ideology, calling for greater awareness of the possibility of politically motivated killings of Taiwanese overseas, in addition to the threat of Chinese invasion. Presidential Office spokesman Xavier Chang said Tsai had asked Taiwan’s top representative to the U.S. Hsiao Bi-khim to visit California soon and support the victims’ families. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Taiwan Navy ship grounded after a crew member tests positive for COVID-19

Editor03 mins

A Taiwanese warship has been grounded after a crew member tested positive for coronavirus, the second vessel to be hit by an outbreak of Covid-19 within just two days, Taiwan’s Navy has confirmed. The island is experiencing a new wave of infection, with over 60,000 new cases reported every day for almost a week and the daily tally is expected to exceed 100,000 later this week. Navy Spokesman Rear Adm. Feng Kuo-wei said in a statement that the Keelung-class destroyer of the 168th Fleet has just returned from a mission at sea when the crew member got sick. The whole crew is being isolated for PCR tests, and those who have Covid will be quarantined in accordance to the government’s regulations, Feng said, adding that the ship’s combat readiness is not affected. The Taiwanese Navy has four guided missile Keelung-class destroyers, bought from the U.S., each has a maximum capacity of 250 crew members. On Monday another ship, a Chi Yang-class frigate – the Fong Yang – was ordered to return to base after several crew members tested positive. The number of infected personnel has not been disclosed. Earlier this month, Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told a committee at the Taiwanese legislature that more than 1,000 officers and soldiers had tested positive for COVID-19, but fewer than 100 of them had been hospitalized. Most of the cases only have mild symptoms, Chiu said. More than 98 percent of Taiwanese military personnel have had two jabs and around 89 percent have been triple-vaccinated. Taiwan’s army has about 180,000 service members.        

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Junta troops murder 3 dozen civilians over 4 days in Myanmar’s Sagaing region

Editor09 mins

Junta forces brutally murdered nearly three dozen civilians — including members of the Buddhist clergy — over the course of four days in Myanmar’s embattled Sagaing region, sources said Monday. The military dismissed the allegations as “fabrications.” Residents told RFA’s Myanmar Service the killings took place from May 10-13 in Sagaing’s Ye Oo and Pale townships, beginning with an early morning raid on the former’s Mon Taing Pin village. A resident of Mon Taing Pin, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal, said junta troops rained heavy artillery and mortar shells down on the village around dawn on May 10 in an attack that members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group later told RFA killed two of their fighters on guard in the area. “They entered our village after firing a variety of heavy weapons. Once in the village, they set up sentries all over and went to the monastery, where they arrested people hiding there and brought them out with hands tied behind their backs,” the resident said. “There was one group of 10 men, and then another group of eight, and another group of 12, and so on. All of them were later beaten to death and their bodies were placed under houses that the troops set on fire.” The villager called the attack “indescribably cruel” and “calculated.” On May 12, when the troops finally left the area and villagers were able to return, they discovered the charred remains of 28 people — 18 inside of homes destroyed by arson in Mon Taing Pin and another 10 similarly disposed of in nearby In Pin village. The victims were all men, between 20 and 60 years old, sources said, adding that in addition to Mon Taing Pin and In Pin, several homes burned in neighboring Si Son village, and around 10,000 residents from 10 area villages fled into the jungle during the attack. Photos provided to RFA by residents of the area appear to show human remains so thoroughly burned that little is left besides bone fragments and blackened internal organs. In other images, the bloated bodies of two young men lie askew next to a motorbike, their faces unrecognizable due to decomposition. One photo shows the lower half of a severed torso, next to a pair of amputated legs. Buddhist monks killed An aid worker, who also declined to be named, told RFA that his organization was compiling a list of victims on Monday. “The houses that were burned down are being cleared up — our main goal is to get the villages into a habitable state,” he said. “The houses were destroyed by fire, so we must make some makeshift repairs. We need funding to make food available. There villages are mostly destroyed, so we are in urgent need of donations.” Refugees from the attack are also in need of shelter as the rainy season approaches, he said. A member of the Ye Oo Township PDF told RFA that the threat of attack remains, as the military maintains a heavy presence in the area. “We don’t know at this time what they might do. The people in the region don’t dare to return to their villages, even though the situation has calmed down,” he said. “We’re trying to find ways to lift their spirits, to make them strong and help them. These are our priorities.” Separately, two Buddhist monks and two young novices were killed on May 13 when junta troops fired heavy artillery into the center of Sagaing’s Pale township, Po Thar, a fighter with the local Black Leopard PDF, told RFA.  Po Thar said that on May 12, the Black Leopards launched an attack on the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party office in Pale, setting it on fire. “The next day, when the military column that was on a mission to Let Yet Ma village returned to Pale, they learned that a PDF group was in the town and started firing artillery shells,” he said. “But the PDF fighters were gone, and they were hitting ordinary people. One of their shells hit the Mya Thein Dan Monastery in the center of the town and killed the abbot, another monk and two young novices.” ‘Fabricated’ reports Junta deputy minister of information, Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun, called the reports of civilian deaths “fabricated.” “These are just rumors. When they have a favorable outcome, [the PDF] says they were responsible. And if one of them is killed, they claim it was a [civilian],” he said, calling the reports part of the PDF’s “routine tricks.” He said the military attacked and captured a PDF camp near Ye Oo’s Sigone village on May 11, killing more than 10 paramilitaries and confiscating a cache of makeshift mortars, weapons and other related materials. Last week’s attacks follow a May 1 announcement by the military that Ye Oo had been upgraded from a township to a district level. PDF fighters in the area told RFA that a military tactical commander is now overseeing the area and that several armored vehicles and troop reinforcements have since been deployed there. Myint Htwe, a former lawmaker with the deposed National League for Democracy party in Ye Oo, said that since the beginning of May, the military has been clearing out an increasing number of villages in the township. Sagaing region has been the center of some of the strongest armed resistance to junta rule since the military seized power from the country’s democratically elected government in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. Fighting between the military and the PDF in the area has intensified in recent months, displacing thousands of civilians, according to sources. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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As borders reopen, labor shortage looms in Laos’ SEZs

Editor07 mins

Laos’ special economic zones (SEZs) are losing labor rapidly as workers move on to greener pastures in Thailand following a reopening of the borders between the neighboring Southeast Asian countries last week. Many of the workers who left for Thailand have previously worked in the country. When the pandemic hit and they lost their jobs, they returned home to Laos before the two countries sealed their borders. The large workforce later took jobs in SEZs in the capital Vientiane region, where Chinese companies are given concessions in exchange for development and jobs. With no other choice, the workers were forced to accept wages that were a mere fraction of what they could get in wealthier Thailand. But the reopening of the borders last week brought a mass exodus of workers, Thanongxay Khounphaithoun, director of the Special Economic Zone Management Department of Vientiane, told local media. In the five SEZs in Vientiane, only 3,375 workers are on the job and, of those, 2,737 are Laotian, he said. To operate at full capacity, the zones need a total of 6,000 Lao workers this year and 10,000 next year. The money is simply better in Thailand. “We can’t attract workers,” an employee at one of the SEZs told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “The problem is that most Laotians came to work with us only temporarily then quit. And now they went back to Thailand,” he said. Another factor that may cause workers to favor Thailand to the SEZs is the language barrier. The Thai and Lao languages are mutually intelligible. But working in the SEZs may require learning Chinese, ultimately for less money. “Chinese companies need Lao workers who speak Chinese,” an employee of a Chinese company in one of the capital’s SEZs told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “If you speak Chinese, you can send your application and resume to their email then wait for a call,” the employee said. But the companies in the SEZ badly need workers and are taking anyone they can get, another employee of a Chinese company in a different SEZ told RFA. “We need a lot workers in the production department. Those who have graduated from high school and are 18 years old or older can apply,” the second employee said. An unemployed Lao resident who used to work in Thailand told RFA that although he could find a job in the SEZs relatively easily, he did not plan to apply. “I don’t want to work in the special economic zones because the wages are too low. I’ve seen an announcement from the Labor Ministry that says the SEZs need a lot of workers, but I don’t want to apply because it’s not worth it,” he said. The difference in wages between the two countries is stark. A Lao worker who is employed in a suburb of Thailand’s capital Bangkok told RFA that she now makes more than three times what she did in Laos for the same job. “In Laos, I worked at a factory in Savannakhet province and I received a basic salary of 1.1 million kip [U.S. $85] per month,” she said.  “Here in Thailand I get 10,000 baht [$288] a month and the cost of living in Thailand is cheaper too.” The Lao Federation of Trade Unions in late March called on businesses to raise the minimum wage from 1.1 million kip ($85) to 1.5 million ($115), the Vientiane Times reported. RFA reported last week that the Lao kip is also in serious decline, losing value against the Thai baht and U.S. dollar to the tune of a 6% drop between January and April. This has coincided with a 15-50% increase imported household goods, meaning that wages paid in kip have gone down in terms of what they can purchase, and wages paid in baht have remained stable by the same measure, and have gone up when compared to the value of the kip. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Vietnamese delegation’s loose lips caught on video during US-ASEAN summit

Editor04 mins

A video that captured crass remarks made by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and other high-ranking officials prior to their meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken went viral over the weekend and was removed from the U.S. State Department’s YouTube account. The Vietnamese officials met with Blinken on Friday as part of the two-day U.S.- summit with the 10-member Association for Southeast Asian Nations. According to a series of tweets about the incident by Southeast Asia analyst Nguyen Phuong Linh, the video shows the Vietnamese delegation laughing that U.S. President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Chinh that he could “not trust Russia.” Chinh also describes the meeting with Biden as “straightforward and fair and that Vietnam isn’t afraid of anyone,” after which the Vietnamese ambassador to the U.S., Nguyen Quoc Dzung, said they “put [Biden] into checkmate.” Minister of Public Security To Lam is also seen praising the former deputy national security adviser during the Trump administration, Matthew Pottinger, for being young and smart and having a wife who was born in Vietnam. The Vietnamese officials also refer to a number of U.S. officials without using honorific terms that in the Vietnamese language their titles alone would command. The State Department typically captures video footage of dignitaries prior to meetings with its senior staff and shares the videos on its YouTube account. In most cases, these videos will show smiles and handshakes and are largely uneventful. The video was published shortly after their meeting on Friday but by Saturday evening, the video became “unavailable” on YouTube. RFA was not able to determine why the video was removed from the State Department’s account. “So embarrassing for the Vietnamese that the State Dept. appears to have taken the video offline,” former BBC journalist Bill Hayton wrote on his Twitter account. The dialogue caught in the video “might indicate a more serious issue of how dysfunctional the incumbent cabinet in [Vietnam] is in general, and how incompetent the [Vietnamese] leaders are in terms of comms, foreign affairs and security,” Linh tweeted. RFA’s Vietnamese Service, which shared the video on its Facebook account, received comments from followers that were critical of the Vietnamese delegation. “Talking about your host while you’re a guest at their house is so uneducated,” Facebook user Kien Nguyen commented. “This kind of language, coming from the Prime Minister’s mouth. It sounds like what you hear in bus stations,” Hoa Nguyen, another Facebook user, said. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Myanmar’s shadow government holds talks with powerful Arakan Army

Editor08 mins

Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG) on Monday met for the first time with leaders from the country’s formidable Arakan Army (AA) insurgent group, prompting speculation over an alliance that an analyst said could give the opposition the upper hand over an overextended military. NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung and Min Ko Naing, the head of its Alliance Relations Committee, held a two-hour meeting via video conference with United League of Arakan/Arakan Army (ULA/AA) chairman, Gen. Tun Myat Naing, and Gen. Sec. Nyo Tun Aung. The NUG said in a statement that the two sides discussed “the current political situation in Myanmar.” “The parties held cordial discussions on the state of the nation and exchanged views,” said the statement, which referred to the Rakhine group as the “ULA/AA-led Rakhine People’s Government.” “Additionally, the current activities of the National Unity Government were discussed by relevant ministries,” it added, without providing further details. AA spokesperson Khing Thukha confirmed the meeting in an interview with RFA’s Myanmar Service, calling it an “exchange of views” on the political situation in Myanmar more than 15 months after the military took power in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup. The AA agreed to a ceasefire with Myanmar’s military in late 2020 after around two years of intensive fighting. The ceasefire was tested in February when the military attacked two AA bases in Rakhine state, prompting clashes in the region, sources told RFA at the time. Talks with the NUG, which the junta has labeled a “terrorist organization,” are likely to ruffle feathers in Naypyidaw. When asked whether the AA expects a resumption of fighting with the military in Rakhine, Khaing Thukha said that time will tell. “It depends on [the junta’s] actions, and whether they respond militarily or politically,” he said. “We will respond as necessary, depending on their actions.” Monday’s meeting came a day after the NUG issued a statement marking Rakhine National Day and expressing condolences for “the suffering of the people affected by the military and political conflict in Rakhine state,” and pledging to “work with relevant organizations to bring about justice.” The shadow government sent a similar message on April 10 to mark the 13th anniversary of the founding of the AA. Potential shift in power Political analyst Ye Tun said that if talks between the NUG and the ULA/AA are successful, fighting could resume in Rakhine and shift the nationwide balance of power in favor of the armed resistance, led by the NUG-aligned People’s Defense Force (PDF) paramilitary group. “If renewed fighting occurs there, the military will have to extend its forces even further to deal with a new battlefront,” he said. “It would not be able to mobilize and attack in one place, so the PDFs would enjoy a slight advantage over the other fronts.” Ye Tun noted that the AA has yet to respond to an invitation to peace talks last month from junta chief, Snr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. He said the ethnic Rakhine army would not attend if it pursues an alliance with the NUG. Earlier this month, the country’s four most powerful ethnic armed groups — the Kachin Independence Organisation, the Karen National Union, the Karenni National Progressive Party and the Chin National Front— all rejected the invitation, saying that by not offering the NUG and the PDF the chance to participate, the junta showed it is unwilling to meet halfway. The NUG has reportedly made overtures to the AA in the past. On April 16, ULA/AA Chairman Tun Myat Naing tweeted that the NUG had “invited us to join hands” in the aftermath of the coup, but the AA chose not to respond because “we had our own agenda to pursue.” Fierce fighting erupted between the military and the AA in December 2018 under deposed National League for Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government, but the two sides brokered a ceasefire in November 2020 and the region had been largely quiet since. However, on May 15 this year, the AA announced that the junta had undermined the agreement and said clashes with the military “could occur at any time” in Rakhine state. Ten armed ethnic groups have signed a Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government since 2015 and have suggested that the deal remains in place, despite an already flailing peace process that was all but destroyed by the unpopular junta’s coup. Previously, all 10 said they would not pursue talks with the military, which they view as having stolen power from the country’s democratically elected government. The military has made 12 invitations to the country’s armed ethnic groups since the coup, but the April offering marked the first time Min Aung Hlaing said he would attend. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

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