• contact@ij-reportika.com
Ij reportika Logo

Category: World

Protesters involved in Vietnamese road riot claim police torture

Editor07 mins

A man detained for protesting the demolition of a road in Vietnam’s Nghe An province says he was tortured into confessing by police while another detainee claims he was also forced to sign a confession. They were among 10 people arrested as hundreds of police clashed with locals demonstrating against the destruction of an old road connecting their village to a main road. A local, who did not want to be named for safety reasons, told RFA that police at Nghi Loc district police headquarters handcuffed a 55-year-old prisoner to a chair and slapped him. “The investigator, who was a uniformed officer, put one foot on his thigh to scare him then slapped him on both ears. He still has tinnitus. He was also hit on the back of the head,” the local said. Later the same day the resident claims the prisoner was slapped by another policeman named Toan, but not hard enough to cause any injury. He said the arrested man was told by police “if you don’t tell the truth you will be killed.” They ordered him to confess to the crimes of “disturbing public order” and “resisting a law enforcement officer in performance of his/her official duties.”  “He was forced to admit to causing disorder even though he said he didn’t cause trouble but was only seeking justice,” said the local. “They said he went to a crowded place [where people were] causing disorder. They forced him to confess.” “The policeman wrote the minutes himself, read them out and told him to sign. There were many passages he didn’t accept and crossed out but in the end he still had to sign.”  A 50-year-old man, who has also been released, said he was also forced to confess and was charged with “disturbing public order” and “resisting public officials.” Of the 10 arrested protesters one woman who wasn’t a local was released the same night. Seven people are still in custody. Binh Thuan parish resident Nguyen Van Hien said that, as of this Monday, the families of those still being held had not been allowed to visit and had not received any documents from the police about the cases against their relatives. Hundreds of police and plain clothes officers were mobilized on the morning of July 13 to stop the protest, building barbed wire fences around the road, which is on land the government has handed over to a company to build an industrial zone. A new road has been built to replace the old one but locals said they are worried the company that owns the road may close it and force them to leave the area their families have occupied for generations. Protestors removed part of the fence to occupy the old road and clashed with riot police armed with batons and shields. Video of the scene shows police firing tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse the crowd, some of whom responded by throwing petrol bombs. State media say five police officers were injured. A 72-year-old woman was taken to hospital, but her family were not allowed to see her. The 55-year-old man said he heard about the clashes with police in the morning and went to the scene to calm people, urging them to protest peacefully. He said he left when police fired smoke grenades and tear gas and returned to his village. When police started searching the village he hid on the second floor of a partially built house. He said police spotted him, threw him to the floor, beat and handcuffed him, dragging him along the ground. He said the beating left him with a lump on his head, facial bruising and blood in his eyes. The Investigation Police Agency of Nghi Loc district said they are collecting documents and evidence and investigating acts of “disturbing public order,” actions “against law enforcement officers” and claims of “illegally arresting people,” in accordance with Vietnamese law.

Read More

Authorities cut power to Ukrainian cultural seminar in Vietnam’s capital

Editor09 mins

Authorities in Vietnam’s capital cut power to a building hosting a Ukrainian cultural seminar over the weekend, sources said Monday, in the latest bid by the one-party communist state to disrupt a Ukraine-related event since its ally Russia invaded the country in February. On July 16, a group of Vietnamese intellectuals who had lived and studied in Ukraine held a seminar on Ukrainian culture at the Sena Institute of Technology Research in Hanoi. Representatives from the Ukrainian Embassy in Vietnam, including Ukrainian Chargé d’Affaires Nataliya Zhynkina, and several Ukrainian students studying in Hanoi were in attendance. The seminar began with a performance of Ukrainian music by a group of visually-impaired students from Hanoi’s Nguyen Dinh Chieu School, but the building’s electricity went off in the middle of the show, which organizers and activists attributed to official malfeasance. Despite the interruption, the seminar proceeded in the dark, activist Dang Bich Phuong told RFA Vietnamese on Monday. “It was inconvenient in terms of comfort, but otherwise, the event went as planned. People still read poems, and a musician who was sitting in the corner still played his guitar passionately in the darkness. It was so touching,” Phuong said. “I noticed that most people accepted the situation very calmly. Despite the darkness, the choir still sang and people still clapped enthusiastically when poems were read, as others held up lights for them. I was very moved and emotional.” Organizers and activists told RFA that prior to the event, several people who planned to attend reported being monitored by police or being blocked from going by authorities. ‘A cultural problem’ Nguyen Khac Mai, the director of the Minh Triet Research Center and an organizer of the seminar, said that Vietnamese intellectuals who studied in Ukraine before going on to be leaders in their fields had asked to take part in the event to celebrate the country where they obtained their degrees. “These are people who had been nurtured and taught by Ukraine,” he said. “Now that they are successful, they want to gather and talk to one another about their sentiments for Ukraine and its people.” Mai said that the seminar had also aimed to amplify an earlier statement by Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh that “Vietnam does not choose sides, but chooses justice.” Instead, he said, authorities attempted to silence those who would speak in support of Ukraine. “Usually, a power failure is a technical problem. I think this wasn’t a technical problem, but a cultural one. It’s very difficult to fix a cultural problem because it resides in one’s heart [and mind],” he said. “Some people agree that we should be able to conduct cultural activities in a natural and friendly way.  But others don’t like it and [cut the electricity] because of that.” In an emailed response to RFA’s questions about the event, Ukrainian Chargé d’Affaires Nataliya Zhynkina said that, despite the disruption, “I believe we all felt that we were surrounded by friendship.” “We heard praises for the culture, history, living style and people of Ukraine, as well as words of consolation for the losses caused by the Russian army and my compatriots who are suffering,” she said. Zhynkina cited the words of the wife of Ukraine’s Ambassador to Vietnam, who spoke at the end of Saturday’s cultural event, to describe the feelings of those in attendance. “She said, ‘Our hearts are aching for our country every day when we receive horrifying news from home. But do you know when the pain eases? That’s when it’s shared by loved ones, Vietnamese people sharing the pain with Ukrainians.’” Strong alliance Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Vietnam has repeatedly refused to condemn the war and also objected to a U.S.-led effort to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council. Earlier this month, Russia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov became the first Russian cabinet minister to visit Hanoi since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” against Ukraine. His visit took place as Hanoi and Moscow celebrated the 10th anniversary of the so-called “comprehensive strategic partnership” that Vietnam has forged with only three nations in the world – the other two being China and India. Moscow is Hanoi’s traditional ally and its biggest arms supplier. Most Vietnamese weaponry used by the navy and air force was bought from Russia, leading to a future dependence on Russian maintenance and spare parts, despite efforts to diversify arms supplies. The weekend’s seminar was not the first Ukraine-related event in Hanoi to be blocked by authorities. On March 5, police in the capital stopped people from leaving their homes to attend a charity event at the Ukrainian Embassy dedicated to raising funds for people in need in Ukraine. Another fundraising event planned for March 19 by a group of Ukrainians living in Hanoi was canceled due to police harassment, sources in the city told RFA at the time. Despite COVID-19, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Russia reached U.S. $5.54 billion in 2021, a 14-percent increase from the previous year, according to official statistics. Translated by Anna Vu. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read More

Cambodian opposition official hospitalized after motorbike attack

Editor07 mins

A group of 10 people on motorbikes on Sunday attacked an official of Cambodia’s main opposition Candlelight Party, causing a severe head injury that required hospitalization, the official told RFA. Nol Pongthearith was on his way to a meeting and on his own motorbike in front of the Candlelight Party office at Por Senchey district in the capital Phnom Penh when he was allegedly attacked by 10 people on four motorcycles. They shouted death threats and struck him, including on the back of his head, with an iron bar. He said he was bruised and bloodied all over his body and required 12 stitches. On Monday, Nol Pongthearith told RFA’s Khmer Service that he was forced to leave the hospital prematurely to continue his treatment at home to ensure his safety. He remains in pain and his wounds require further treatment. “I am concerned for my life because the assailants shouted that [they] wanted me dead. This is not normal,” he said, adding that he believes that he was targeted because he is a member of the Candlelight Party. Candlelight Party officials have complained for several months about incidents of violence and bullying by local officials representing Prime Minister Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), especially in the run up to the June 5 local communal elections. The Candlelight Party ended up winning about one-fifth of the country’s contested commune council seats. “These assaults will continue. Today it happened to me, tomorrow it will happen to other members,” Nol Pongthearith said. “I demand that the government … arrest the perpetrators who caused these injuries to me as well as the other Candlelight Party activists and members, and that they are tried before the law.” The Candlelight Party condemned the attack in a statement it released on Sunday and called on authorities to open an independent investigation to find the people responsible. Police have received Nol Pongthearith’s complaint and require his cooperation to investigate, Phnom Penh Municipal Police spokesman San Sok Seiha told RFA. San Sok Seiha however urged the victim and journalists not to connect his assault with politics or similar incidents in the past before an investigation is completed. “Don’t just say this or that, because every assessment released by the police needs to be accompanied with clear evidence,” he said. Candlelight Party Vice President Thach Setha told RFA the violence against his activists undermine the credibility of Cambodian elections.   He said that if the authorities do not want to see criticism or accusations that the incidents are related to politics, the authorities must seek justice for all victims by allowing an independent investigation. “In the past, political activists and civil society have never seen the authorities arrest the perpetrators and punish them, that is why we are in doubt,” he said.  The government wants to protect its own reputation or considers all cases as non-political.  “Please catch the perpetrators, and [those who ordered the attack] and bring them to justice,” said Thach Setha. Civil society groups are very concerned about the recurrence of violence against political activists, Am Sam Ath, director general of the Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights, told RFA.  He said that if the police do not prevent these kinds of incidents, they will invite criticism of Cambodia’s political system at home and abroad. “The authorities need to protect the security of the people if there is a crime against an individual. It must be investigated to find the perpetrator and bring justice to victims and eradicate the culture of impunity,” Am Sam Ath said. According to RFA statistics, since 2019, around 40 social and political activists have been victims of the brutal assaults by unidentified assailants, causing serious injuries, permanent disability and even death.  The authorities were unable to identify the perpetrators in almost all cases. Many of the incidents were similar, involving helmeted attackers chasing their target on motorbikes, beating them or throwing stones at their homes. Sunday’s incident was the second time Nol Pongthearith was attacked — he was also assaulted in 2019, when he was a member of the banned-opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party.  Translated by Sok Ry Sum. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

Did China’s Belt and Road Initiative destroy Sri Lanka?

Editor013 mins

On July 9, 2022, hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters came out on the streets of Colombo and occupied the official residence and offices of Sri Lanka’s then president, who tendered his resignation before fleeing overseas. Two things are closely associated in my mind with the current political turmoil in Sri Lanka: the Chinese debt trap and green agriculture. Many of the Chinese-language reporting outside of mainland China and its state-controlled media blame the Chinese debt trap, while English-language media consistently lay the blame with green agriculture. According to data from the Ministry of External Resources of Sri Lanka, as of April 21, 2021 , Sri Lanka’s foreign debt totaled U.S.$ 57 billion, 47 percent of which was international capital market borrowings, 13 percent of which is owed to the Asian Development Bank, 10 percent to China, another 10 percent to Japan, nine percent to the World Bank, two percent to India and the remaining nine percent to other creditors. Sri Lanka’s GDP ranks between 60th and 70th in the world, but it gets more international media coverage than a lot of higher-ranking countries simply because of its geographical location as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean.” It is also a key site of China’s global infrastructure and supply-chain initiative, known as Belt and Road. At the end of 2017, the Sri Lankan government announced it would formally transfer a 70 percent stake in Hambantota Port to the China Merchants Group, as well as allowing China to lease the port and its surrounding land for 99 years. This is where the idea that Sri Lanka is in a Chinese debt trap originates from. The deal was widely reported by Western mainstream media. A July 29, 2017 report from the Associated Press reflects the Western media’s take nicely. “Sri Lanka’s government on Saturday signed a long-delayed agreement to sell a 70 percent stake in a $1.5 billion port to China in a bid to recover from the heavy burden of repaying a Chinese loan obtained to build the facility,” the report reads. “The document was signed between the government-run Sri Lanka Ports Authority and the state-run China Merchants Port Holding Co. in the capital, Colombo, in the presence of senior government officials from Sri Lanka and China. According to the agreement, the Chinese company will invest $1.12 billion in the port, which sits close to busy east-west shipping lanes,” it says. “Two local companies whose shares will be split between the Chinese enterprise and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority will be set up to handle the port’s operations, security and services. The Chinese company will be responsible for commercial operations while the Sri Lanka Ports Authority will handle security. The lease period is 99 years.” A container ship arrives at a port in Colombo on July 16, 2022. Credit: AFP ‘String of pearls’ Two things are important in this report. The first is that the equity transferred in the deal was actually a debt-to-equity swap, as Rajapaksa built the Hambantota port with a loan from China. The port opened in 2011 and was criticized by opposition parties during 2015 presidential election campaign. Soon after, Sri Lankan authorities sought help from China because the port had lost U.S.$304 million by 2016, and Sri Lanka couldn’t afford the heavy burden of loan repayments of … U.S.$59 million annually. The second is that the port was funded by Beijing as part of its “string of pearls” projects in the Indian Ocean. The phrase was coined by Indian politicians to describe concerns over China’s potential plans to wield influence in the region via a slew of civil and military infrastructure projects from Port Sudan in the Horn of Africa through Sri Lanka, along the coasts of Pakistan, Bangladesh, to the Maldives and the Straits of Malacca, Hormuz and Lombok. Many Indian commentators believe that both the ‘string of pearls’ strategy and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor will threaten India’s national security. Beijing was able to include Sri Lanka in this plan because Rajapaksa relied heavily on Chinese infrastructure projects. China made massive investments in Sri Lanka’s ports, airports, highways and power plants during his time in office, becoming largest foreign investor in the country. On June 27, 2018, The New York Times published an article titled “How China Got Sri Lanka to Cough Up a Port,” which argued that the Chinese government knew all along that the port could never turn a profit. The whole purpose [of funding it] was to take the port for China when Sri Lanka came to the point of not being able to repay the debt. By 2022, China had been laying the groundwork, seeding global public opinion, to counter the Western media narrative of a Chinese debt trap. Now, influential foreign affairs think pieces in the United States are barely mentioning it at all. Instead, articles about Sri Lanka’s green farming crisis have been on display since last year, including a Dec. 7, 2021 piece in The New York Times titled “Sri Lanka’s Plunge Into Organic Farming Brings Disaster.” A July 2019 survey by Colombo-based analytics firm Verité Research found that three-quarters of Sri Lankan farmers rely heavily on fertilizers, while only 10 percent do not. For important cash crops like rice, rubber and tea, the dependence is 90 percent or more. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, in white, walks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after officially launching a project to build a $1.4 billion port city on an artificial island off Colombo, Sri Lanka, Sept. 17, 2014. Credit: AP Organic farming push Both the Sri Lankan government and environmental groups believe the excessive use of fertilizers will cause growing problems with water pollution, and scientists have found that excessive exposure to nitrates increases the risk of colon, kidney and stomach cancers. So Rajapaksa pledged in his 2019 election campaign to convert the country’s farming industry to organic farming within 10 years, rushing to deliver on the plan by banning imports of synthetic fertilizer and pesticides … prompting soaring…

Read More

As many as 15 anti-regime teachers arrested in Myanmar

Editor04 mins

Myanmar’s military junta has been rounding up teachers who are members of the Civil Disobedience Movement (CMD) and have been giving online lessons at a school linked to the shadow National Unity Government (NUG). Kaung for You was set up to educate pupils who are boycotting classes or have been unable to attend school. It offers online education by CDM teachers for around 20,000 children across the country. “We heard that up to 15 people were arrested in Yangon, Mandalay, Shan state and Thanintharyi region,” a member of the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation (MTF) told RFA on Monday. “The parents of the students are so worried. I warned Kaung for You school to be careful before the arrests. Anything can happen at any time when [the school] is public,” said the MTF member, who declined to be named for safety reasons. The arrests took place between July 13 and July 18 and included Kaung for You founder Kaung Thaik Soe, the assistant director for education at Myitthar township in Mandalay region. The school’s plan to move from online lessons to classroom teaching last Wednesday was halted by the arrests that day of Kaung Thaik Soe and two teachers. The junta announced the arrests three days later. The school says its website was then hacked, allowing the military council to locate and arrest other teachers. Students and parents told RFA they were also afraid of being arrested if their names and addresses had also been leaked. The NUG’s Ministry of Education denounced the arrests as a violation of children’s rights to free education. It said it would offer help to the detained teachers, continue courses for pupils and open an emergency hotline to provide advice and assistance. Aside from school boycotts, many children in Myanmar have been denied education since the coup on Feb.1, 2021 due to a surge in attacks on schools, teachers and students. There were at least 260 attacks on schools between May 2021 and April this year, non-profit organization Save the Children said in a report last month. In April bombs were found in four schools and there were three explosions in or close to schools. There were also 33 recorded cases of educational buildings being set on fire, 10 direct attacks on teachers and 10 schools occupied by the military. The ruling junta says at least 40 teachers have been killed in demonstrations and fighting between troops and militias.

Read More

Vietnamese Facebook activist’s family speak out about his ‘secret trial’

Editor07 mins

Facebook activist Nguyen Duc Hung’s family say he was denied visitors and they only found out about his five-and-a-half-year sentence from state media the day after it was handed down. Hung’s posts aimed to raise awareness of an environmental disaster in his hometown of Ky Anh. The Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh steel factory discharged chemical waste into the sea and environmentalists say the effects are still being felt by the residents. His social media posts did not focus solely on the disaster in his home town. He told his 9,000-plus followers about cases of social injustice and human rights abuses. He also focused on religious freedom, posting comments about the case of Thien An Monastery in which the provincial government of Thua Thien Hue “borrowed” land from the religious facility. Hung was convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the criminal code. The indictment said Hung’s actions directly affected the implementation of the Party’s guidelines and policies, the State’s laws, and the strength of the people’s government, divided national unity, reduced the people’s trust in the Party and State, and potentially caused national insecurity and disorder. While the court claimed it was a public criminal trial Hung’s family said they heard nothing from the police or the court. “When they carried out the trial, my family did not know,” Hung’s father Nguyen Van Sen told RFA. “I phoned the detention center and was told that the trial had been carried out the day before. When I asked why they didn’t notify my family, the police said the family was not involved.” Sen got the same response when the called the provincial police’s investigative department. According to a lawyer who has defended many similar trials Hung’s case is not uncommon. Ha Huy Son said the court does not have to notify the family or invite them to the trial. He said Criminal Procedure Code 2015 only stipulates telling the family the person is in custody, or has been arrested in the case of an urgent arrest. It is only necessary to tell the defense lawyer, the victim and any other parties involved at least 10 days before the trial. Hung is the sixth Facebooker this year to be convicted of “conducting propaganda against the state.” The others received sentences of between five and eight years. Hung, 31, was arrested on Jan. 6 this year and has been held incommunicado since then. His father said, despite repeated trips to the detention center, the family was not allowed to see him. The family did not hire a defense lawyer and Sen said he did not know if one was present at the trial. Sen did not want to comment on the sentence, other than saying he hoped it would be reduced because Hung’s wife had left him to raise their two primary school children. State media did not mention whether Hung had a lawyer, only saying he had pleaded guilty and asked for leniency. RFA called the People’s Court of Ha Tinh province but no-one replied Communist Party paranoia  “Given the worsening situation for activists and human rights defenders in Vietnam, it was sadly just a matter of time before Nguyen Duc Hung got arrested,” said Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson. “It’s become obvious that the Vietnam Communist Party is so paranoid about dissenting views that it considers mere writing of words online to be a threat to state security. By giving out a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence for just writing criticism of the government on Facebook, the government has committed an outrageous and unacceptable violation of Nguyen Duc Thung’s rights.  In reality, he did nothing that would have been considered wrong, or even out of the ordinary, if he was in a democratic society, but of course he is stuck living under a single party dictatorship.” Roberts said Vietnam’s crackdown on freedom of expression means no peaceful activist can spread his views via social media without facing what he called “bogus state security charges” and many years in prison. “Quite clearly, Vietnam has become one of the worst rights abusing and dictatorial governments in Southeast Asia and now it wants to control the Internet as strictly as China. Any government donor or international business investor should think twice about investing in a country like Vietnam where freedom of expression and access to information is so strictly controlled,” Robertson said.

Read More

Global heating, human development could drive future waves of disease in east Asia

Editor010 mins

Global heating is leading dozens of bat species to migrate to southern China and southeast Asian countries, amid growing concerns that the climate crisis could fuel more zoonotic disease and further deadly pandemics, experts told RFA. A 2021 University of Cambridge study found that climate change may already have played a role in the emergence of the current pandemic, after researchers tracked large-scale changes in vegetation patterns across southwestern Yunnan province and neighboring Myanmar and Laos. “Increases in temperature, sunlight, and atmospheric carbon dioxide – which affect the growth of plants and trees – have changed natural habitats from tropical shrubland to tropical savannah and deciduous woodland,” the study said. “This created a suitable environment for many bat species that predominantly live in forests.” It said the number of coronaviruses in a given area is closely linked to the number of different bat species present, with an additional 40 bat species moving into Yunnan during the past 100 years, bringing with them around 100 new coronaviruses. Genetic data suggests SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, may also have come from this region, according to study first author Robert Beyer, a researcher in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Zoology. “Climate change over the last century has made the habitat in the southern Chinese Yunnan province suitable for more bat species,” Beyer said. “As climate change altered habitats, species left some areas and moved into others – taking their viruses with them,” he said. “This … most likely allowed for new interactions between animals and viruses, causing more harmful viruses to be transmitted or evolve,” said Beyer. The world’s bats carry around 3,000 different types of coronavirus, with each bat species harboring an average of 2.7 coronaviruses – most without showing symptoms. While most coronaviruses carried by bats can’t jump into humans, several coronaviruses known to infect humans are very likely to have originated in bats, the study said. The area of Yunnan covered by the study is also home to pangolins, which are a likely intermediary host for SARS-CoV-2, experts said. “The virus is likely to have jumped from bats to these animals, which were then sold at a wildlife market in Wuhan – where the initial human outbreak occurred,” a press release accompanying the study said. Another study published by researchers at Georgetown University in the journal Nature also warned that the climate crisis may increase the risk of cross-species transmission of viruses — and could even trigger the next pandemic, citing bats as a likely source species. Dobson’s horseshoe bat. Credit: India Biodiversity Portal Increased risk of disease Chen Chen-chih, associate professor of wildlife conservation at Taiwan’s Pingtung University of Science and Technology, said both studies showed similar findings, warning that migratory shifts could bring bats into closer contact with humans. He cited an outbreak of Hendra virus in Australia in 1994, which caused deaths in humans and horses, and originated in fruit bats. “When their habitats are destroyed or reduced, fruit bats will of course find another way to live,” Chen told RFA. “There are parks in the city, so the likelihood of finding food is very high, added to the fact that people in Australia don’t actively kill bats.” “So they find an urban environment that they can adapt to.” Li Lingling, professor of ecology and evolutionary Biology at National Taiwan University, said humans have already interfered with natural habitats. “Bats are nocturnal and do not [normally] come into contact with humans,” Li said. “When we increase opportunities for bats to come into contact with other animals, the risk of humans being exposed [viruses] also increases.” Chen agreed. “Many studies have found that when habitat of wild animals is stable and undisturbed, the pathogens they carry are less likely to spread,” he said. “When protected animal habitats are well managed and biodiversity taken care of, a single highly lethal pathogen is less likely to emerge,” he said. According to the Georgetown study, there are at least 10,000 viruses currently existent in wild mammals that could be transmitted to humans. Prediction models show that under different carbon emission scenarios, more than 300,000 first contacts between species will occur, some of them in the next 50 years, potentially resulting in more than 15,000 new cross-species virus transmissions. “The vast majority of prediction models believe that the virus will spread across species, particular cross-species transmission from wild animals will become more and more serious under climate change,” Chen said. “These pathogens may jump the species barrier, infect livestock animals, and then infect humans from there, or even directly from wild animals to humans,” he said. “All of these routes are possible [but] whether transmission happens or not depends on the frequency of contact, or the immune status of the potential host,” Chen said. Li said the overall risk had definitely increased, however. “There are some key factors in between, but the risk of disease is indeed increased,” Li said. A greater horseshoe bat. Credit: Marie Jullion/Wikimedia Commons Managing biodiversity Chen said the key lies in the management of biodiversity, particularly in tropical and subtropics regions of east and southeast Asia. “The more species there are, the more potential virus species there are, but when wild animals live in a natural habitat, there are few opportunities for contact, and therefore everyone can coexist peacefully,” he said. Li said areas of high population density and ongoing development are most at risk. “Humans invade nature, transform their environment, or make use of wild animals … and then the risk of coming into contact with viruses carried by wild animals is relatively high,” she said. “Once an epidemic occurs in a densely populated place, then of course there’s a much higher chance of it spreading,” Li said. Chen cited the hunting of wild animals for food, and the trading of different species in the same markets as high-risk behavior. Wild animals that are trapped alive and held in cages in close proximity have weakened immune systems, making transmission more likely among them…

Read More

Belt and Road becomes ball and chain for Chinese construction workers

Editor025 mins

They signed up at job fairs to work as carpenters, bricklayers, plumbers and painters at a housing project in the North African country of Algeria and were promised round-trip air fare, room and board, and better wages than they’d earned in China. They thought working for companies serving China’s flagship Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was a safe bet. When the migrant workers from Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan, and Hebei–China’s relatively poorer inland provinces–arrived in the country, however, they soon found themselves living in sheds without air conditioning in desert heat and facing a nightmare of withheld wages, mysterious extra fees, confiscated passports, and dismal food. Many are trapped in Algeria. Chinese labor lawyers say their treatment not only besmirches China’s reputation, undermining the goals of the nearly 10-year-old Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of infrastructure projects aimed at boosting Beijing’s global profile, but also constitutes human trafficking under international conventions China has signed. The BRI is seen as Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature international policy. Following up on tips received from workers who’ve been stranded some 6,000 miles (9,200 km) from home, RFA Mandarin interviewed numerous workers employed in Algeria’s Souk Ahras Province, Chinese diplomats, labor lawyers and an executive of Shandong Jiaqiang Real Estate Co. Ltd, the eastern China-based company the laborers accuse of luring them to Algeria under false pretenses. “When I came here through an agent, I realized the situation is not good. It is worse than in China,” said Worker A, whose name has been withheld to protect him and his family from retaliation. “The contract is good for two years, and the pay listed on the contract is more than 10,000 yuan ($1,480) per month––between 15,000 ($2,220) and 20,000 yuan ($2,960). After landing here, I made less than 10,000 yuan ($1,480) a month,” he told RFA. “The pay is far from what was promised,” said a second man, identified as Worker B.  “It is worse than what we earned in China. Here the monthly pay on average is 3,000 yuan ($444).” When he and fellow workers “arrived here and found out that the situation was far from ideal, we wanted to go home,” said Worker A. “We spoke with the company, and the company said ‘no.’ They said ‘Because you already signed the contract, if you go home now, that is a breach of contract.’” According to Worker A, Shandong Jiaqiang Real Estate Co. Ltd. told the workers to “ask your family to wire 28,000 yuan ($4,145) over to pay for the penalty. After you pay the penalty, then you can go home.” He told RFA wages were only paid every six months, with 70 percent paid, and the other 30 percent withheld until the workers fulfilled their two-year contracts. That pay arrangement meant the workers “usually have no money to live on” and had to borrow advances against their wages. “In the process, the workers were ripped off by other costs,” added Worker A, who said the company profited by loaning money to them at an exchange rate to the local Algerian Dinar currency that was about half the actual rate. A Chinese worker walks by a building at a construction site in Algeria’s Souk Ahras province. Credit: A Chinese worker. ‘Pig food’ and hot sheds Worker B said it took a strike by workers in September 2021 to get the company to pay the 70 percent they were due in the middle of that year. He said the workers were told by the company: “Feel free to sue. We’re not afraid. Just sue us, go back to China to sue us.” But a third worker involved in the dispute said that path was impossible for poor workers to take “The lawsuit costs money. To hire someone costs money. If you file a complaint in China, you’re dragging your family in too. Who can afford to sue? said Worker C. A chief reason the workers had to borrow money was to cook their own meals because the three daily meals they were promised under their contracts was inedible. “To say it bluntly, the food was worse than those given to pigs. Sometimes the food was just impossible to eat,” said Worker B. “In the winter, they gave you marinated cucumber salad or marinated tomatoes, plus two eggs per person. That’s it. Or two eggplants each person,” he said. “The food we ate was mixed with sand and gravel. The noodles were black,” added Worker B. “Workers in many construction sites that this company operates received the same treatment. Why? The company does not want to cook the food well, because if it’s delicious, you’d eat more. By offering lousy food, you’d pay out of pocket to buy your own food and cook your own meals,” Worker A surmised.  The make matters worse, Worker A said, the workforce had to “live in regular sheds, with no air-conditioning, no matter how hot it is.” “In the summer, the temperature goes as high as 41 or 42 Celsius (105 or 107 Fahrenheit),” he added. Food provided to workers by Shandong Jiaqiang Real Estate Co. Ltd. ay its construction site in Algeria. Credit: A worker Overpriced plane tickets, improper visas Another grievance shared by the workers in Algeria who spoke to RFA in recent months was the failure to provide return airfare to China as promised. After checking with the Chinese Embassy in Algiers, workers who were trying to go home were told that tickets to China ran about 22,000 yuan. “The boss has told them that a flight ticket costs ¥42,000 yuan, and we have to pay our own ticket. He wanted us to pay by ourselves,” said Worker D. “It seemed that the ticket was around ¥22,000 yuan, and he charged you more than ¥30,000, said Worker E. “’Immigration clearance fee,’ they said,” he added. Worker D explained that because the company applied for business visas for the workers, when the workers return to China, they have to go through departure procedures at the…

Read More

Indonesia: Unity among G20 needed to avoid ‘catastrophic’ crisis in developing world

Editor05 mins

Indonesia’s finance minister said Friday it is imperative that G20 countries are united in dealing with a looming food crisis caused by the conflict between breadbaskets Russia and Ukraine, or the world’s most vulnerable countries will face disastrous consequences. During a meeting in Bali, Sri Mulyani Indrawati also told the top finance and economic diplomats from the Group of Twenty counties to schedule a forum of members’ finance and agriculture chiefs to devise a plan to deal with food and fertilizer shortages. “The unresolved COVID-19 pandemic as well as the unfolding war in Ukraine are likely to exacerbate the already severe 2022 acute food security that we are all already seeing. In addition to that, a looming fertilizer crisis also has the potential to further exacerbate and extend the food crisis even in 2023 and beyond,” said the finance minister of Indonesia, this year’s holder of the G20’s rotating chair and host of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting. “We are acutely aware that the cost of our failure to work together is more than we can afford. The humanitarian consequences for the world and especially for many low-income countries would be catastrophic,” Sri said. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, it has blocked all of the latter’s Black Sea ports and cut off access to almost all of that country’s exports, especially of grain. Those moves sparked fears of a global food crisis. In its April report, the Global Crisis Response Group, set up by the United Nations secretary general, said Ukraine and Russia provide 30 percent of the world’s wheat and barley, a fifth of its maize and more than half of its sunflower oil. Russia also is the world’s largest natural gas exporter and second largest oil exporter. Sri said it was essential to deploy all available financing mechanisms to save lives and strengthen financial as well as social stability. “The G20 could urgently convene a joint G20 finance and agriculture ministers meeting to improve coordination between finance and agriculture ministers and explore actions to address the growing food insecurity and related issues,” she said. “This is exactly like we did or what we are doing with joint finance and health ministers when we were dealing with COVID-19 and preparing a pandemic preparedness mechanism.” Sri kept her comments about G20 unity general, but it’s no secret that the group is split between the West, which has condemned Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, and others including China, Indonesia and India, which have refused to do so and continue to maintain ties with Moscow, analysts have said. So sharp have the divisions been that in April, U.S., British and Canadian finance chiefs walked out of the last G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Washington when the Russian minister rose to speak. The Russian foreign minister reciprocated at last week’s G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali during the top U.S. diplomat’s address. Media reports said no one walked out on Friday, day one of the two-day meeting, but it remains to be seen whether the forum will produce a communiqué on Saturday. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

Read More

Auto parts are a hot commodity in a North Korea cut off from new supplies

Editor06 mins

Thieves in North Korea are scouring the city for cars to strip, as a severe parts shortage grips the country due to a ban on imports in response to the coronavirus pandemic, sources in the country told RFA. Most North Koreans do not own vehicles, but most of those who do drive cars made in China.  Imports of Chinese auto parts stopped when Beijing and Pyongyang shut down the border and suspended all trade at the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020.  As supplies inside North Korea dwindled, parts available for purchase have become rarer and rarer. Opportunistic thieves are looking to cash in on the shortage. In some cases, car owners have to steal parts just to keep their own vehicles running, a resident of Chongjin in the northeastern province of North Hamgyong told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Thievery of auto parts is rampant downtown,” said the source. “New parts are almost impossible to find, and even used ones are hard to get, so the thieves steal other people’s auto parts to repair their own cars.”  Sometimes the thieves steal the entire car. “Last week in Sunam district, a car owner parked his car in front of his house. A short while later, while he was eating dinner, his car disappeared,” the source said. “The next day, the car was found … only the shell remained, with all the main components torn off.” A black market of stolen auto parts has developed as the parts become more and more valuable, the source said. “Car parts are as precious as food, and they can be sold to make money at any time. There are many cases where cars that are parked at night on the roadside or in villages are hauled to a remote place so the thieves can steal the parts,” he said.  “The vicious cycle continues when the victims of theft steal parts from others to fix their own cars,” the source said. A car drives past residential buildings in Pyongyang, North Korea in a file photo. Photo: Reuters Businesses have begun to ramp up security to protect the vehicles they depend on to make money, he said. “This can disrupt production and business operations, so drivers are sleeping in their cars to protect them when they travel to other regions.” Protecting cars has become a struggle in South Hamgyong province, a resident there told RFA, on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Most companies that own cars do not have dedicated garages and they park their cars outside,” he said.  “There are two security guards on a shift at night in my company. Even though the car was parked in front of the well-lit security office, auto parts were still stolen multiple times,” the second source said. The second source’s company is holding drivers responsible for all vehicle expenses, so the drivers are getting creative to deter thieves. “One driver built a garage out of plastic film in his yard at his own high-fenced house. He guards the car by sleeping in it at night with two ferocious dogs,” he said.  “Due to the (COVID-19) pandemic, many thieves are active because there is not enough food to eat and clothes to wear. Nevertheless, the Workers’ Party has no interest in resolving the suffering of the people, and they are telling us to overcome economic difficulties, armed only with ideological training,” he said, referring to propaganda lessons that tell the people to solve their own problems in line with the country’s founding Juche ideology of self-reliance.  Translated by Claire Shinyoung O. Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Read More

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