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Henan rural bank customers curbed by COVID-19 app as they protest frozen accounts

Editor07 mins

Authorities in the central Chinese province of Henan have been using the COVID-19 Health Code app to control the movements of protesters over failures at rural banks, according to social media posts. Some 400,000 customers of four rural banks were left unable to withdraw their money after an estimated U.S.$1.5 billion in assets were frozen in mid-April, according to Caixin magazine. The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) has said it is paying close attention to the four village lenders who stopped offering online banking services, was working with local authorities to resolve the issue, it said. “Many customers from wealthy southern and eastern regions deposited huge sums into these village banks for high interest rates and cash rewards,” it said. Some of the depositors staged — or tried to attend — street protests, but posted that their COVID-19 health codes had turned red, preventing them from going. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has imposed an electronic traffic light system on all citizens, ostensibly to control people’s movements, trace close contacts of those infected, and limit community transmission of the virus. But the reports suggest the authorities could turn it to other purposes, preventing people from petitioning over government wrongdoing or protesting against injustice. A video clip posted to social media on Monday showed more than 20 people holding up placards in front of the Chongqing branch of the CBIRC. A man uses his smart phone to register with China’s COVID-19 Health Code app, in a file photo. Credit: AFP Health codes react Similar protests were reported outside the Henan provincial branch of the body, at the Zhengzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center and outside the Henan representative office in the southern city of Guangzhou. The CCP-backed Global Times newspaper cited several would-be protesters as saying that their health codes had turned red on arrival in Henan’s provincial capital Zhengzhou, despite their having a negative PCR test from within the past 48 hours. Some said their health codes had turned red after they scanned a QR code for “Zhengzhou station west exit” that had been shared in a group chat for depositors. Others said their codes had turned green again after they arrived back in their hometowns, the Global Times said. The paper quoted Henan officials as saying that “errors in the database” could be the reason for the sudden changes in creditors’ health codes. The Henan provincial health commission has said it is looking into the reports. U.S.-based legal scholar Teng Biao said the local government, if they did indeed use the health code app to control people’s movements, could have violated three Chinese laws. “The first is the Personal Data Protection Law, as it would be a violation of the right to personal privacy,” Teng said. “It could also involve illegally obtaining or leaking citizens’ personal information.” “It could also be in breach of the Law on the Control and Prevention of Infectious Diseases,” he said, adding that that law forbids false reporting of disease-related information, and that this could constitute a crime in cases deemed “serious.” “This case is fairly serious because so many people are involved,” Teng said. “The officials concerned could also be abusing their power, which is provided for in the Criminal Law.” Dissidents also targeted Teng said he thought it unlikely that anyone would be held accountable, even if they were shown to have misused the app. Former political prisoners and human rights lawyers have reported similar phenomena when using the app. Rights attorney Xie Yang had his health code turn red when he traveled to Shanghai to meet up with the mother of jailed citizen journalist Zhang Zhan. “They are abusing disease control and prevention measures, abusing the health code app, for political purposes, to restrict the freedom of rights defenders to travel,” Teng said. Shanghai resident Li Bing said similar issues are appearing in the city, which is still imposing strict controls on residents’ movements despite announcing an end to lockdown on June 1. “Everything just keeps getting better and better,” Li said sarcastically, when asked about the health code app. “This is going to get worse in future, as the CCP increasingly employs digital totalitarianism,” he said. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

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Laos to sell $350 million in high-interest bonds to combat inflation

Editor05 mins

The Lao government is so desperate for cash that it is offering about U.S. $340 million in bonds with a six-month interest rate of 20 percent, terms that sources told RFA sounded too good to be true. The Lao economy is struggling with rampant inflation, a severe lack of foreign currency, and shortages of food and gas. While all the problems are interconnected, the government has taken to blaming the devalued kip on black market moneychangers and has introduced measures to maintain the value of its currency. To that end, the Bank of Lao P.D.R. said on Tuesday it would start selling bonds worth 5 trillion kip. Buyers will receive a certificate from the central bank. “We’re selling bonds to everyone except commercial banks and financial institutions,” a central bank employee told RFA’s Lao Service on condition of anonymity to speak freely. “Even foreigners who have lived in Laos for only one year are eligible to buy bonds.” But Laotians contacted by RFA said that the 20 percent rate over six months sounded too good to be true. They say they do not have confidence that their cash-strapped government will be able to honor the commitment. “I’m not interested in buying bonds like that because they are too risky,” said the owner of a rubber-processing plant in northern Laos, who like the rest of the unnamed sources in this report declined to be named for safety reasons. “I’m going to lose money on those bonds. Nobody is going to buy them. The government is broke right now, so how can it pay us back when the bonds mature?” he told RFA. A Lao financial expert said the interest rate will make it hard for the government to repay the notes. “The government won’t be able to pay that much. I heard yesterday from the Lao National Assembly meeting that the government wanted to sell 5 trillion kip worth of bonds to tackle inflation and divert more foreign currency into the system. The question is, who is going to buy them?” the expert told RFA. “My impression is that most people are concerned, not confident. They are afraid that the government won’t have money to pay it back,” said the expert. An import-export business owner from Vientiane also told RFA he won’t be buying any bonds. “I don’t have much kip. Most of the time I use Thai baht because I import products from Thailand, and pay in baht. Most of the big businesses in Laos use either dollars or baht,” he said. The owner of a business in the southern province of Savannakhet told RFA that she was surprised when she heard the interest rate on the bonds was set at 20 percent. “The government will pay that high interest? 20 percent! Usually, we get a little more than 6 percent a year for stocks or bonds, but we’ll get 20 percent for government bonds? That’s much too high,” she said. According to a report by the Lao Statistics Bureau, the country’s inflation rate climbed to 12.8 percent on the year in May, its highest rate in 18 years.  This continued a trend of increasing on year inflation rates since January. Translated by Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Interview: ‘I am a powerless Pakistani citizen’ who ‘raised my voice for you’

Editor013 mins

Muhammad Usman Asad, a 22-year-old Pakistani student at the National University of Sciences & Technology in Islamabad, donned a doppa — a Central Asian skullcap — and clutched the sky blue flag of East Turkestan during a solitary sit-in to protest China’s repressive policies against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in the country’s far-western Xinjiang region. Asad staged his peaceful protest on June 10 during a campus celebration of China’s Dragon Boat Festival. Nong Rong, China’s ambassador to Pakistan, and other Chinese officials involved in the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — a collection of multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects built in Pakistan since 2013 under China’s Belt and Road Initiative — attended the event, organized by the university’s China Study Centre and Centre for International Peace and Stability. Asad, who said he learned about China’s abusive policies targeting Muslims in Xinjiang while surfing online, was shocked to learn that Pakistan, a predominantly Muslim country, was not helping the Uyghurs, but instead siding with its ally China. Reporter Gulchehra Hoja of RFA Uyghur talked to Asad about why he staged the protest on the Chinese holiday and how others responded. The interview has been edited for clarity and length. RFA: How did you learn about Uyghur situation? Asad: When I was a child, I only knew that there was a province in China which is predominantly Muslim. I didn’t have much knowledge about the history or the culture or know anything about the genocide that is currently going on. When I started growing up, I used to spend a lot of time on the internet and reading about a lot of issues. I didn’t have enough knowledge or enough sources when I was back home, but when I lived in other cities where we had free internet service, we started using Facebook and other social media platforms like YouTube. From there, I started researching the topic. I [watched] many documentaries, and there was so much clear evidence that I couldn’t stop myself from sympathizing with the Uyghur issue or denying the fact that the genocide is currently going on. I then critiqued it within my own mind, comparing the Kashmir issue with the Uyghur issue, and I came to the conclusion that the Uyghur issue was more fundamental and more devastating and that the situation is very harmful for the Muslim community there. RFA: Have you been in touch with any Uyghur activist groups or activists in Pakistan? Asad: About one year ago, I came across a VICE News documentary. From that point on, I came to know about the … Uyghur community living here in Pakistan. When this event was being organized inside our university, about three or four days before, I was thinking about the university saying that there was a big billboard [for it]. So, I thought that I should do something about it in relation to protesting the Uyghur issue. I didn’t have any access to anything, so I started researching on the internet and found the Omar Uyghur Trust in Pakistan (a Uyghur language and cultural organization) and [contacted] Omar Khan (the group’s cofounder). We had a meeting just two days before the protest at the university. We discussed everything [about the issue], and he gave me the cap as well as a flag. I was preparing for my exams as I was preparing to do the protest. RFA: Did you reach out to your friends or other students to join your protest? Asad: I tried reaching people, but they were busy with their exams. They promised to support it, but when they got to the campus, there were fewer people present there. RFA: Did anybody try to stop you from protesting? Asad: When I entered the event, two people were sitting right beside me, and they were scaring off all the people I asked to take my picture. They told them that the authorities would come for them and they would be kicked out of the university. One person who took one of my pictures went out for some water, and the security team went up to him and ordered him not to sit beside me. The person did not agree with it. All they wanted to do was get all the images that I had taken during the whole event. … I said that if I just went outside the building and held this flag, it wouldn’t bother them and wouldn’t mean anything to either of them. …. [With] all the high Chinese cultural representatives here and all the different Pakistanis present, I said to myself, “OK, this will work.” RFA: Did anything happen to you after the protest? Asad: I haven’t received any threats either from the university or from the disciplinary committee. RFA: Have you been in contact with any Pakistani journalists at local news organizations? Asad: I am a student, so I don’t have connections with a lot of media persons — radio persons who are very influential. They are mostly controlled by the Pakistani establishment, so even if you go and speak to them, they will still need a green light from [officials]. Even if any of the media in Pakistan wanted to cover the issue, all the Chinese would need to do is place one call to the authority that regulates electronic media, and all the content would be taken off. RFA: Are you now concerned about your safety or are you being pressured by authorities? Asad: I have been following different stories of human rights activists within Pakistan, and our conditions are not very great. At the same time, I thought that the university could do something with having a disciplinary committee. I was having a lot of tension, and I was thinking again and again about how I should do the protest in such a way that my own studies and my own career [would not be affected] and that I would not get sued by the government. I thought that they would take me away for one or…

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China blocks Tibetans offering help to earthquake survivors in Sichuan

Editor04 mins

Chinese authorities in an earthquake-hit region of Sichuan are telling Tibetans offering support to survivors to return home, saying their help is no longer needed, RFA has learned. More than 25,000 residents of Barkham (Maerkang, in Chinese), a county-level city in the Ngaba (Aba) Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, were displaced when an earthquake measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale struck the area on June 10. Government rescuers did not reach the affected area until Monday. Meanwhile, Tibetans living in areas nearby offered immediate help, with monks and townspeople providing food, clothing and temporary shelter in tents to those whose homes were destroyed, local sources said. After Chinese rescue teams arrived on June 13, however, Tibetans offering aid were told to leave, a Tibetan resident of the area told RFA on Wednesday. “After the official Chinese rescue teams came in, the Tibetans who had come from nearby regions to provide help were not allowed to stay and were told by Chinese authorities to leave the area for their own safety,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely. “However, the timely assistance they provided to survivors was a huge help,” the source said. Monks bring boxes of food and other supplies to survivors of a June 10, 2022 earthquake in Sichuan. Photo from Tibet. Updated figures of casualties were not immediately available. However, Chinese state media on June 10 reported one resident had been injured in the quake, with 25,790 survivors transferred and resettled. Chinese authorities have meanwhile imposed a strict clampdown on information coming from Barkham, with residents barred from posting reports, pictures or any other information about the quake, which devastated houses, stupas and monks’ residences, a source told RFA in an earlier report, also declining to be named. Earthquakes are common on the Tibetan plateau, with a 7.3-magnitude quake last year striking Matoe (Maduo) county in Qinghai, killing 20 and injuring 300. Authorities had similarly blocked social media reporting at that time, telling citizens to report injuries and deaths only to the government rather than sharing information online, RFA said in earlier reports. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Written in English by Richard Finney.

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New Hong Kong school history textbooks say the city ‘never was a British colony’

Editor010 mins

A nationalistic program of Moral, Civic and National Education brought in to replace Liberal Studies in Hong Kong’s primary and secondary schools has removed references to the city’s status as a former British colony, local media reported. Four textbooks recently released online from three publishing houses contain the sentence “Hong Kong was not a colony,” the Ming Pao and other newspapers reported. The move comes after articles in media controlled by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) expressed the same idea. “Before 1997, the United Kingdom regarded Hong Kong as a colony, and its use of the term “overseas dependent territory” was just another term for a colony,” a 2021 opinion piece in the CCP-backed Ta Kung Pao said in an op-ed piece dated April 10, 2020. “But Hong Kong was never actually a colony; it’s just that the British practiced colonial rule here.” The article dismissed British sovereignty over Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, ceded by the Qing Dynasty in perpetuity, or the New Territories, which were governed by Britain under a 99-year lease that expired in 1997. The colonial status of Hong Kong was “wishful thinking” on the part of the British, the article, signed by Xiao Ping, said. “The Chinese government after the Qing Dynasty did not recognize the unequal treaty that ‘ceded’ Hong Kong, and never gave up its territorial sovereignty over Hong Kong,” it said, adding that China had successfully had Hong Kong removed from a United Nations list of colonies in 1972. It said the removal of Hong Kong from that list meant that the city wasn’t eligible for independence under post-war, post-colonial settlements like other former colonies. An installation marking the July 1 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China is seen in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong on June 12, 2022. Credit: AFP CCP arguments taught as fact Now, this CCP-endorsed argument has made it into Hong Kong schools, to be taught as fact, as part of the new nationalistic education program in the city. Students are required to absorb, and find arguments to support, the political points made in the program, without considering arguments for and against, the Ming Pao reported. The Liberal Studies critical thinking program, rolled out in Hong Kong schools in 2009, has been blamed by Chinese officials and media for several mass protests in recent years, from the 2011 campaign against patriotic education by secondary school students, to the 2014 youth-led Umbrella movement, to the 2019 protests that began as a campaign against extradition to mainland China and broadened to include demands for fully democratic elections. Details of the new textbooks emerged after staff removed more than 200 titles from school libraries, including those written by pro-democracy advocates and former lawmakers. Meanwhile, CCP leader Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the Ta Kung Pao on its 120th anniversary on Monday, commending the newspaper for its contribution to “maintaining social stability in Hong Kong” and “winning back hearts and minds”. The letter was read out by Luo Huining, director of Beijing’s Central Liaison Office in Hong Kong, who also lauded the paper’s patriotism. “In a diverse society like Hong Kong, it is especially necessary for the patriotic media to uphold the truth … and promote clarity,” Luo said. “We especially need journalists who will uphold their mission and act responsibly.”   Public opinion still appears to be lagging behind CCP propaganda, however. The Ta Kung Pao has been bottom of the class in recent polls by public opinion researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, according to Taiwan-based political commentator Sang Pu. “They want to bring Hong Kong under complete subjugation to the CCP, and the Ta Kung Pao is a good tool for Xi Jinping to achieve this,” Sang told RFA. “The Ta Kung Pao, along with Xinhua news agency, the People’s Daily and CCTV, have played a key role in … placing the CCP’s press releases in Hong Kong [media].” Party mouthpieces proliferate He said the Ta Kung Pao had printed political denunciations of prominent, pro-democracy media organizations shortly before they were forced to close amid the threat of prosecution under the national security law, which ushered in an ongoing crackdown on public dissent and peaceful opposition in the wake of the 2019 protest movement. “Xi Jinping is of the view that the media are the mouthpiece of the party, so the Ta Kung Pao counts as a media organizations, while all the rest are chaotic elements that don’t count as media at all,” Sang said. “In the view of the CCP, there is no such thing as freedom of the press.” Sang said the removal of certain books from primary and secondary schools shows that the entire publishing industry must be walking a fine line to avoid prosecution under the national security law. Among those removed were books about the democratic processes that developed in Hong Kong between the 1990s and 2019, when the last democratic elections to the District Council following months of mass popular protest over vanishing freedoms resulted in a landslide for the pro-democracy camp. An autobiography by Wang Lingyun, mother of 1989 student protest leader Wang Dan, and by late ousted liberal premier Zhao Ziyang, were also among those removed from schools. Wang said the removal of the books showed that freedom of expression was being stifled in the city. “There used to be no taboo around June 4, 1989-related or other politically sensitive books in Hong Kong, but now they’re being removed by the education authorities,” Wang told RFA. “Under the national security law, the Hong Kong authorities must support the government in Beijing, which has made up its mind to stifle freedom of speech in Hong Kong, and have no choice but to take them off the shelves to protect themselves,” he said. He said the CCP’s aim is to erase memories of mass protests, and to prevent younger people in Hong Kong from being influenced by ideas like freedom and democracy. Translated and edited by…

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More than 40 anti-regime protesters arrested in Yangon in two days

Editor04 mins

Myanmar’s military junta is targeting younger protesters in the country’s business capital, Yangon, arresting more than 40 men and women on Monday and Tuesday. Witnesses said those arrested were aged between 18 and 30.  An activist told RFA the military council tracked down the remaining members of an anti-regime group after rounding up protestors in Yangon’s Kyee Myin Daing township on Monday  “Seven or eight people in one house have been arrested. The junta forces are able to find the location of the rest of protesters and arrest them under the pretext of checking household guest lists. Most of the detainees were UGs [underground], supporters of anti-regime leaders and protesters on the ground,” said the person, who declined to be named for safety reasons. Most of those arrested are from Kyee Myin Daing, San Chaung, Tamwe, Kyauktadar and Yan Kin townships. Junta forces raided their houses day and night under the pretext of checking household lists and forcefully arrested them, sources told RFA. Protesters still at liberty and their families said the exact whereabouts of the more than 40 detainees are not yet known. Witnesses and protesters who are currently in hiding said the police and army arrested activists and beat them at their homes, forced them to kneel in the road and tortured them to discover the whereabouts of remaining members. Calls to a military council spokesman by RFA on Wednesday remain unanswered. Anti-regime protesters in Yangon on June 3, 2022. CREDIT: Yangon People’s Strike Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said Tuesday that a total of 14,110 Anti-regime activists across the country have been arrested in more than 16 months since the military coup. Of those, 11,053 are still in custody.  Even younger opponents of the regime are being systematically targeted by police and troops according to a report by the United Nations. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews called on world leaders to “take immediate coordinated action to address an escalating political, economic and humanitarian crisis that is putting Myanmar’s children at risk of becoming a lost generation.” “During my fact-finding for this report, I received information about children who were beaten, stabbed, burned with cigarettes, and subjected to mock executions, and who had their fingernails and teeth pulled out during lengthy interrogation sessions,” Andrews said, describing the junta’s actions as “war crimes.” The UN report said at least 142 children have been killed, more than 250,000 have been displaced by the military’s attacks and over 1,400 have been arbitrarily detained since the coup in February, 2021. It said at least 61 children, including several under 3-years-old, are reportedly being held as hostages, while the UN has documented the torture of 142 children since the coup.

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Membership of a political party ‘cannot be grounds for arrest’ UN group says

Editor09 mins

The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has criticized the case against a Vietnamese Australian facing a 12-year sentence as lacking grounds for arrest. The comments came in a report released in the first week of June, concerning the case of Chau Van Kham, an Australian resident and member of the banned U.S.-based Viet Tan opposition party. WGAD also released a report on Nguyen Bao Tien, a driver who volunteered for a publishing house founded by a jailed activist. According to documents No. 13/2022 and No. 35/2022, approved by WGAD during its 93rd session from March 30 to April 8, 2022, the agency considers the arrests of Tien and Kham to be arbitrary. WGAD called on Vietnam’s government to take the necessary steps to remedy their situation immediately and in accordance with relevant international conventions, including those set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Chau Van Kham, 72, was arrested on January 13, 2019 on charges of “operating to overthrow the people’s administration.” He was later sentenced to 12 years in prison on another charge of “terrorism aimed at opposing the people’s administration,” because he was a member of Viet Tan, labeled a “terrorist” organization by Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security. Viet Tan was described by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as a moderate activist group advocating for democratic reform. WGAD said it was not the general rule to arrest Chau Van Kham without a warrant in violation of Article 9 of ICCPR. The agency said the deprivation of his liberty was arbitrary because he was only exercising the freedoms of conscience and belief as well as the right of expression enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR. It said Kham’s connection to Viet Tan could not be considered grounds for arrest. WGAD also criticized Kham’s limited consular access from the Australian Mission in Vietnam and inadequate legal assistance.  In an interview with Radio Free Asia this week, Viet Tan chairman Do Hoang Diem said: “Right now we are in Australia and the purpose of our trip is to meet Australian politicians and elected officials to campaign for Mr. Chau Van Kham.” “This UN ruling is very timely. With this verdict, it is clear that Mr. Chau Van Kham is innocent … We will fight for Mr. Kham to be free and return to his family.” In March the Vietnamese government responded to criticism by saying Kham was arrested for violating Vietnamese law, not for his democratic views. The government said his arrest and sentencing were carried out in accordance with Vietnamese law, consistent with international conventions that Vietnam has ratified. Hanoi said it had announced that Viet Tan was a terrorist organization with the aim of overthrowing the government by methods such as armed activity, directly threatening national security and social order, and recruiting and training members in the use of weapons and explosives. The government said Kham illegally entered Vietnam on January 11, 2019, under the direction of Viet Tan, to organize recruitment and training for sabotage and terrorist activities. Since his arrest, many civic groups and parliamentarians in Australia have called on the government in Canberra to put pressure on the Vietnamese government to secure his release. However, he is still detained and forced to do hard labor in a Vietnamese prison. In a separate report the working group commented on 36-year-old Nguyen Bao Tien, a book courier and voluntary worker for Liberal Publishing House. The publishing house was founded by imprisoned activist Pham Doan Trang and is not registered with the Vietnamese government,  Tien was arrested on May 5, 2021 on charges of “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. He was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison on January 21 this year. WGAD said Tien was punished only for peacefully exercising the right to freedom of expression and association as provided for in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR. It noted that during his detention and trial Tien was deprived of the right to a defense attorney. In March the Vietnamese government said Tien was arrested for violating national law and that during his arrest and trial, his rights were guaranteed. The government said Tien owned and distributed 108 books containing content defaming the regime’s policies in order to call for the overthrow of the people’s government.  WGAD operates under the auspices of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), with the mandate to “investigate cases of deprivation of liberty imposed arbitrarily or inconsistently with the international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or the international legal instruments accepted by the States concerned.” In the last five years it has released documents criticizing the arbitrary arrest and conviction of dozens of prisoners of conscience, including Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Pham Doan Trang, Nguyen Thuy Hanh and Le Van Dung. It has called on the Vietnamese government to release them. However, Vietnam has sentenced them to lengthy prison terms and placed them in prisons with harsh living conditions.

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North Korean doctors in Laos ordered to pay ‘loyalty funds’ to Pyongyang

Editor08 mins

North Korea is forcing two doctors who set up a highly profitable ward in a hospital in Laos to send their earnings back home as so-called “loyalty funds,” North Korean sources in Laos told RFA. The North Korean doctors, a physician and a surgeon, were dispatched to the Southeast Asian country to set up a practice on one floor of the Lao-Asean Hospital in the capital Vientiane, an upscale medical facility that offers a higher standard of care than an average Lao hospital. The hospital caters to wealthy foreigners who live in Laos, as well as tourists. Under the normal terms for North Korean workers dispatched to other countries, the doctors had to give their government a percentage of their earnings. In most cases, the money these workers keep is still several times what they could hope to earn at home. But the COVID-19 pandemic caused revenue at the hospital to decline, as there were fewer wealthy foreign patients. The ward operated by the North Korean doctors was forced to suspend operations until the Lao government lifted restrictions in May. As the money started rolling in, Pyongyang ordered the two doctors to resume payments, only in greater amounts that cut sharply into their incomes. “I heard from an acquaintance, who is close to the doctors from Pyongyang, that the North Korean authorities have demanded excessive loyalty funds from the doctors,” a North Korean source in Laos told RFA’s Korean Service on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “Their operations have barely become normalized. But they look particularly depressed and disappointed because they owe more in loyalty money than they earn,” she said. The doctors started their practice in Vientiane to capitalize on the tourism industry centered there. “Since there are many tourists, they expected that [opening a ward] in that hospital would be able to earn a lot of foreign currency,” said the source. “They designated [their ward] as [part of the] international hospital rather than a North Korean one,” she said. “Most foreign tourists and residents recognize it as [part of] an international hospital that offers better treatment than the local Lao hospitals, and they visit a lot.” Prices can be up to 10 times higher, and must be paid in U.S. dollars, cash only, according to the source. She said she was aware of a Chinese businessman who paid $20 for an abdominal pain diagnosis that would cost $2 in a typical Lao hospital. “Since May, the hospital has been making a good profit as the Lao government completely lifted the COVID-19 lockdown,” she said. Another North Korean in Laos said the hospital ward was established a few years ago, before the worst of the pandemic had reached Laos. “It was founded and operated by two doctors in their 40s who were dispatched from Pyongyang a few years ago. They diagnose, treat and perform surgeries on patients regardless of their nationalities, and get a lot in foreign currency,” she told RFA on condition of anonymity in order to speak freely. “The Lao government closed the border and banned movement between regions in 2020. As the entry and movement of foreigners was suspended, the North Korean hospital [ward] started seeing fewer patients,” the second source said. Eventually the ward had to suspend operations as the steady flow of patients dwindled. “The [ward] has emerged from operational difficulties caused by the COVID-19 crisis, and it is making significant profits,” she said. Sources told RFA that the North Korean ward is able to earn between $100 and $200 per day on average, but has been asked to send to Pyongyang $3,000 per month. After factoring in overhead, very little remains for the two doctors. An employee of the Lao-Asean hospital confirmed to RFA’s Lao Service that two North Korean doctors have been working at the hospital for the past two years, but could not elaborate on how they came to work for the hospital or what their exact positions were. A Lao health official, meanwhile, told RFA that the hospital is privately owned by a domestic company, Lao Medical Service Co., but that it was common for hospitals to hire doctors from abroad. “Many private hospitals in Laos employ many foreign doctors and medical experts including Chinese and Vietnamese because these foreigners have great knowledge in the field,” the official said. “As for the Lao-Asean Hospital, I know that the owner is a Lao investor who has hired several Chinese doctors to work with Lao counterparts and at least one of them is the head of a treatment department, but I don’t know whether the hospital has any North Korean doctors,” he said. Additional reporting by RFA Lao. Translated by Claire Lee, Leejin J. Chung and Max Avary. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

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Police report: ARSA rebel chief ordered Rohingya leader Muhib Ullah gunned down

Editor06 mins

The leader of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army rebel group ordered the killing of Rohingya activist Muhib Ullah at a Bangladeshi refugee camp last year, police in the South Asian country said in recommending murder charges against 29 suspects, although the insurgent group denied being involved. Muhib Ullah was more popular than Ataullah Abu Ahmmar Jununi, the head of ARSA, and that displeased him, according to an investigation report that police submitted to a court in Cox’s Bazar district on Monday. Seen by BenarNews, the police report says the 29 suspects were members of ARSA and that they acted at the orders of Ataullah and were involved in Muhib Ullah’s murder at various stages.  Fifteen of the 29 suspects have been arrested since the killing last September and the remaining 14 are absconding, police said. The report says that four of the 15 persons confessed to their involvement in Muhib Ullah’s murder. According to one of them, ARSA leaders organized a meeting at one of the refugee camps two days before the murder, the police report says. “At the meeting, [one suspect] and others said ‘our leader Ataullah Jununi told us that Muhib Ullah is emerging as a bigger leader. The Rohingya are giving him more support. He must be killed’ said accused Azizul Haque who was guarding the meeting venue,” according to a portion of the police report. “All of the persons having involvement with the murder are the members of the so called ARSA/Al-Yaaqin,” reads the report, adding that the accused persons had reportedly been involved in theft, robbery, murder, rape, mugging, human trafficking and smuggling of illegal narcotics. “All of them are rogues,” says the report, stating that ARSA and Al-Yaaqin were the same organization. This is the first official admission by Bangladeshi authorities on the presence of ARSA at the refugee camps. Until now, the Bangladesh government has strenuously denied that ARSA exists on Bangladesh soil. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, an additional superintendent of police in Cox’s Bazar district, confirmed to BenarNews that police submitted the investigation report to the local court on Monday, but he declined to comment further. “The investigation report says it all. We have no comments beyond the investigation report,” he told BenarNews. On the night of Sept. 29, 2021, unidentified gunman burst in and fatally shot Muhib Ullah, a refugee and internationally known Rohingya activist, in his office at the Kutupalong camp while he was meeting with other refugees. ARSA is a Rohingya insurgent group whose 2017 attack on government outposts in Myanmar’s Rakhine state led to a brutal military crackdown against the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority, causing about 740,000 of them to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. ARSA is also blamed for criminal activities at the Rohingya camps in Ukhia and Teknaf, two sub-districts of Cox’s Bazar, a southeastern district near the border with Rakhine state in Myanmar. The police report says that ARSA was against the repatriation of the Rohingya to Myanmar but it did not elaborate on the reason. “Ataullah Abu Ahmmar Jununi could not accept the leadership of Muhib Ullah. He asked Muhib Ullah to stop the operation of his organization to promote the repatriation of the Rohingya. But he did not listen,” the report says. Without going into detail, the report also says that the popularity of the Arakan Rohingya Society for Peace and Human Rights, Muhib Ullah’s organization, would stand in the way of ARSA’s operations. In addition, according to the report, Ataullah asked Muhib Ullah to join ARSA but he rejected the offer. Sunil Barua in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, contributed to this report. BenarNews is an RFA-affiliated online news service.

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UN official urges action to prevent a lost generation of children in Myanmar

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The international community must “reengage and refocus” on Myanmar to head off a looming crisis that may leave a “lost generation” of children, who have already suffered incredible deprivation since the country’s February 2021 military coup, a United Nations human rights official said on Tuesday. In a 40-page report titled “Losing a Generation: How the military junta is attacking Myanmar’s children and stealing their future,” Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, says the military regime has systematically abused children since taking power. Soldiers, police officers and military-backed militias have murdered, abducted, detained and tortured children in a campaign of violence across the Southeast Asian nation, the report says. Military attacks have displaced more than 250,000 children, the report says. More than 1,400 youths have been detained and at least 61 are currently being held hostage. The report says that 142 children have been tortured — beaten, cut, stabbed, burned with cigarettes, deprived of food and water — since the military seized power from the democratically elected government. “The junta’s relentless attacks on children underscore the generals’ depravity and willingness to inflict immense suffering on innocent victims in its attempt to subjugate the people of Myanmar,” said Andrews, a former member of the U.S. Congress from Maine from 1991 to 1995, in a statement. He was appointed to his U.N. role in May 2020. An estimated 7.8 million children remain out of school because of the conflict. As many as 33,000 minors could die preventable deaths this year because they have not received routine immunizations, according to the report. Andrews called on U.N. member states, regional organizations, the U.N. Security Council and other U.N. agencies to significantly increase humanitarian assistance and regional support for refugees. Countries should also implement stronger economic sanctions and coordinated financial investigations to diminish the military’s ability to remain in power. The parties must “respond to the crisis in Myanmar with the same urgency they have responded to the crisis in Ukraine,” the special rapporteur said. “The junta’s attacks on children constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Andrews said. “Junta leader Min Aung Hlaing and other architects of the violence in Myanmar must be held accountable for their crimes against children.” There was no immediate response from the State Administration Council, the formal name for the junta regime. In Geneva, Switzerland, on Tuesday, Michelle Bachelet, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, urged member states to step up pressure on the Myanmar junta amid ongoing reports of violence and human rights violations. “[T]here are reasonable grounds to believe the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes,” Bachelet said. “What we are witnessing today is the systematic and widespread use of tactics against civilians in respect of which there are reasonable grounds to believe the commission of crimes against humanity and war crimes,” she told the current session of the Human Rights Council. Bachelet called on U.N. member states to take sustained and concrete action to end the violence against civilians and minority groups. “I urge all member states, particularly those with the highest-level access and influence, to intensify the pressure on the military leadership,” she said, citing measures such as increased restrictions on the regime’s financial holdings and business interests and limiting its access to foreign currencies to restrict the purchase of military equipment and supplies. “I also call for continued support to the efforts underway to pursue accountability for the ongoing and past serious human rights violations, as well as alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity through all available tracks,” she said. “Myanmar’s future depends on addressing the root cause of this crisis.”

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