Category: World

North Korea’s COVID outbreak may be leading to a rise in stillbirths as pregnant women thought to be suffering from the disease are shuttled into hotels, warehouses and other improvised medical facilities that lack proper treatment, sources in the country told RFA. After more than two years of denying any North Korean had contracted the coronavirus, the country finally announced its first cases and deaths this month, saying the Omicron variant had begun to spread among participants of a large-scale military parade in late April. The country then declared a “maximum emergency” and began locking down entire cities and counties, requiring people to check their temperature and report symptoms twice a day. Suspected cases were isolated from the rest of the population. The makeshift quarantine facilities, sometimes set up in empty tourist or industrial facilities, are ill-equipped to treat anyone infected with the virus, and pregnant patients added a new layer of complications. “At the Anju Hotel, men and women with symptoms of COVID-19 are separated and isolated in their rooms,” a resident of the city of Anju in South Pyongan province, north of the capital Pyongyang, told RFA’s Korean Service. About 200 residents of Anju are isolated in the hotel, and their treatment consists of only two pain reliever tablets each day, said the source, who requested anonymity to speak freely. “There are many pregnant women among those with severe symptoms who are quarantined in the hotels,” the source said. “Those who are about to give birth are at risk. There have been cases of stillborn babies, born way before their due date because the women are unable to receive proper treatment. “The quarantine authorities only dealt with the bodies of the stillborn babies and are not giving further treatment or special care for the mothers who complain of high fever or symptoms of postpartum. Families are outraged that the quarantine officials, who say they can only let the grieving mothers go out if they recover from their COVID-19 symptoms,” she said. The source said she knew specifically about two women who had stillbirths, including one who had been helped by a doctor to deliver the baby. In Chungsan county, in another part of the province, suspected COVID-19 cases are isolated in an empty warehouse on a cooperative farm, a resident there told RFA on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “The meals are provided by the local government. Two fever pills are provided by the Central Committee to each person, but the pills are not really working for the patients with high fevers,” he said. “Right now, there are about 300 patients that are quarantined at the warehouse and propaganda office at the farm. There are about 20 pregnant women among the group, who, after 10 days of isolation in a harsh environment, are suffering from high fevers and pregnancy poisoning, swelling, and pain all over their bodies, so they are appealing for appropriate treatment,” he said. But the quarantine officials are treating the pregnant women the same as everyone else at the makeshift facility. “They give the pregnant women the same corn-rice and spinach soup as they give to the other patients, and no treatment is given. The pregnant women are having stillbirths because they cannot eat properly when they are sick, and the fetuses die in their stomachs,” he said. “As the news of stillbirths spread among the families of the pregnant women quarantined for COVID-19, local residents are complaining that the authorities and their COVID-19 quarantine measures are killing pregnant women and their unborn babies,” the second source said. About 2.8 million people have been hit by outbreaks of fever, 68 of whom have died, according to data based on reports from North Korean state media published by 38 North, a site that provides analysis on the country and is run by the U.S.-based think tank the Stimson Center. Around 2.3 million are reported to have made recoveries, while 479,400 are undergoing treatment. The country has only a handful of confirmed COVID-19 cases, which 38 North attributed to insufficient testing capabilities. Data published on the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center showed North Korea with only one confirmed COVID-19 case and six deaths as of Monday evening. Translated by Claire Lee. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Authorities in western China’s Sichuan province are forcing Tibetan monks to take the blame for the destruction of sacred statues torn down by China, ordering them to sign affidavits claiming responsibility, RFA has learned. The move follows widespread condemnation of the demolitions in Drago (in Chinese, Luhuo) county in the Kardze (Gandzi) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture that were reported by RFA’s Tibetan Service in January. “After reports of these demolitions in Drago county reached the international community, the Chinese government is now accusing Tibetan monks in Drago of destroying the Buddhist statues, and is coercing them into signing documents to take the blame,” a Tibetan living in exile said, citing contacts in the region. “But due to tight restrictions in the area right now, it is difficult to gather information on what punishment the monks will receive if they refuse to sign these documents,” RFA’s source said, speaking on condition of anonymity to protect his contacts. “Most of the local Tibetans and monks who were arrested for sharing news of the Buddha statues’ destruction have now been released, but they are constantly being harassed and are closely watched by the Chinese authorities,” the source added. A 99-foot-tall Buddha statue that stood in Drago was targeted for demolition in December by officials who said it had been built too high. Monks from a local monastery and other Tibetan residents were forced to witness the destruction, an action experts called part of an ongoing campaign to eradicate Tibet’s distinct national culture and religion. Destroyed along with the statue were 45 traditional prayer wheels set up for use by Tibetan pilgrims and other worshippers, sources said. Drago county chief Wang Dongsheng, director of the demolition, had earlier overseen a campaign of destruction at Sichuan’s sprawling Larung Gar Buddhist Academy. Eleven monks from a nearby monastery were then arrested by Chinese authorities on suspicion of sending news and photos of the statue’s destruction, first reported exclusively by RFA, to contacts outside the region. Using commercial satellite imagery, RFA later verified the destruction at the same time of a three-story statue of Maitreya Buddha, believed by Tibetan Buddhists to be a Buddha appearing in a future age, at Gaden Namgyal Ling monastery in Drago. Communications clampdowns and other security measures meanwhile remain in place in Drago county, said Pema Gyal, a researcher at London-based Tibet Watch. “Chinese authorities continue to impose restrictions on Drago county, and those released from prison are kept under scrutiny all the time,” Gyal said. Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

A Uyghur goldsmith died 20 days after being released from prison and his 20-year-old son died the next day at his funeral in northwestern China’s Xinjiang region, Chinese government officials said. Yaqup Hesen, 43, was released from prison in Ghulja (in Chinese, Yining) in April and died on May 1, the eve of the Eid al-Fitr holiday that marked the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan. Bilal Yaqup, his son, died the following day, the sources said, confirming news about the pair that had circulated on social media. Despite China’s severe restrictions on online information, reports of the deaths of Uyghurs detained in prisons and internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) have continued to circulate on Facebook and other platforms. Many of the videos and photos posted are of deceased Uyghurs who are under the age of 50 and had lost a significant amount of weight while incarcerated. A Facebook post about the father and son said Bilal collapsed and died while carrying his father’s casket at the businessman’s funeral. A resident from the neighborhood committee in the area of Ghulja where Hesen lived said many Uyghurs have died after being released from area prisons and camps, but she did not disclose their names. “There are many. I don’t know all their detailed identities,” she said. A neighborhood committee official where Hesen lived told RFA that he had been jailed for praying. He spent three years in prison and left unable to walk. “He lived in our neighborhood,” she said. “It’s been three years since he was sentenced to prison.” The committee official also confirmed that Bilal died the day after his father passed away. “I don’t know the reason for his death,” she said. Tursunjan, a Uyghur from Ghulja who now lives in Turkey and who knew Hesen, told RFA that he called people in the city after he had seen a social media post about the man’s death to find out if the information was accurate. His sources in Ghulja confirmed to him through gestures on a video call that the information about the father’s and son’s deaths was correct, he said. Tursunjan said he learned that Hesen was taken away in 2018 and was sentenced to prison a year later. He was released in critical condition in April about two to three weeks before Eid al-Fitr. “He was sentenced to prison three years ago. That’s what I heard,” he said. “After his death, I heard that he had been actually released from prison,” Tursunjan said. “He was pronounced dead on the eve of Eid.” Hesen’s and Bilal’s deaths spoiled a typically festive mood in the city during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, Tursunjan said. “He had a very good reputation in the city as an ethical and pious person,” said Tursunjan, who said he knows at least 40 people from Ghulja who are still in prison. Hospital treatment Another Uyghur from Ghulja who now lives abroad but requested anonymity for safety reasons, said municipal police, state security forces and a group of Chinese government officials from the XUAR attended Hesen’s funeral. One of the members of the group told RFA that Hesen died due to ineffective treatment for an illness and confirmed that Bilal passed away the day after Hesen died. “We heard he died, so we went [to the funeral],” the government official said. “We didn’t know what the cause of his death was.” Hesen’s family took him to hospitals in Ghulja and Urumqi (Wulumuqi), the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) capital for treatment, the Uyghur in exile who requested anonymity said. “The family tried hard to treat him in hospitals both in Ghulja and Urumqi, but all were ineffective,” he said. “His son fainted and died because of deep mourning about his father’s passing.” Chinese authorities have targeted and arrested numerous Uyghur businessmen, intellectuals, and cultural and religious figures in the XUAR for years as part of a campaign to monitor, control and assimilate members of the minority group purportedly to prevent religious extremism and terrorist activities. Many of them have been among the 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities believed to be held in a network of detention camps in Xinjiang since 2017. Beijing has said that the camps are vocational training centers and has denied widespread and documented allegations that it has mistreated Muslims living in Xinjiang. The United States and the legislatures in several Western countries have deemed the treatment of Uyghurs and others in the XUAR as constituting genocide and crimes against humanity. Translated by RFA’s Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.