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Category: World

Bicycle built for who?

Editor01 mins

To Lam made his first foreign trip as general secretary of Vietnam’s Communist Party to China, where President Xi Jinping gushed about the two countries’ “shared future.”  But the goals of the neighboring nations with similar political systems don’t always align, including on matters of sovereignty in the South China Sea, where China’s sweeping territorial claims have earned rebukes from Hanoi and sparked widespread public protests in Vietnam. While both leaders are pedaling forward, they appear to be headed in opposite directions.

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Two Myanmar reporters among four killed in raid by junta forces

Editor05 mins

Myanmar junta forces hunting insurgents raided a reporter’s home killing him, another reporter and two other people, one of whom was a member of a rebel group, associates of the victims, including a former employer, told Radio Free Asia.  The troops raided reporter Htet Myat Thu’s home in Mon state on Wednesday after receiving a tip-off that insurgents were meeting there. Since the military seized power and toppled a civilian government more than three years ago, junta officials have closed independent media outlets and arrested and tortured some reporters, victims and rights groups say. Junta soldiers opened fire on the home of Htet Myat Thu in Kyaikto township on suspicion the people there were members of a pro-democracy insurgent group called the Kyaikto Revolutionary Force, the associates of the men said.  The second reporter killed in the raid was Win Htut Oo, 28, a freelance journalist who worked for the Democratic Voice of Burma and The Nation Voice, one of his employers told RFA.  About 30 soldiers raided the home, said a source close to one of the victims who declined to be identified for security reasons.  “Htet Myat Thu was shot first when he opened the door. Another man, Kyin Wak, was shot in the leg when he jumped out of a window,” said the source.  “Win Htut Oo and another man, Ah Win, were shot at the back of home while they were trying to flee.” Ah Win was a member of the Kyaikto Revolutionary Force but the other man, Kyin Wak, just lived in the house and had no militia affiliations, associates said. Authorities did not return the bodies to their relatives but cremated them, they added.  Twenty-six-year-old Htet Myat Thu worked for the Voice of Thanbyuzayat news outlet. He was arrested once before while reporting on protests that followed the 2021 coup but continued his work as a journalist after being released. Nay Aung, chief editor of The Nation Voice, dismissed any suggestion that either of the reporters was a member of an insurgent group.  “The journalists are just trying to report the right information in a timely way while they’re out in the field,” he said. “But the junta viewed this as an attack on the military and retaliated against them, step by step.” Pro-junta channels on messaging app Telegram reported that four Kyaikto Revolutionary Force soldiers were killed in a shootout during a raid on a home where rebel soldiers were gathering.  RFA tried to contact Mon state’s junta spokesperson Saw Kyi Naing for comment but he did not respond.  According to data from the Independent Myanmar Journalists Association, 176 journalists have been arrested since the 2021 coup. Of these, five have been killed and 52 remain in custody. Myanmar ranks ninth for number of journalists killed and second for the number of jailed journalists worldwide, according to the 2023 Global Impunity Index released by the Committee to Protect Journalists press freedom group. RELATED STORIES Myanmar filmmaker Pe Maung Same dies after release from prison  Former reporter for independent new outlet dies in Myanmar prison On World Press Freedom Day, journalists across Asia continue to face threats Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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In Pictures: 17,000 gather in New York arena to offer prayers for Dalai Lama

Editor05 mins

Many gathering before dawn, more than 17,000 people were in attendance at a New York area sports arena to offer prayers for the long life of the 89-year-old Dalai Lama, who said he expected to live past 100. The Tibetan spiritual leader recently completed over six weeks of physiotherapy in Syracuse, New York, where he was undergoing his recovery and resting after knee replacement surgery on June 28. The Dalai Lama also spoke about the need for religious harmony and emphasized the principles of secular ethics — an ethics system that appeals to religious and nonreligious alike and is based on the cultivation of genuine compassion. The Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) People line up to hear the Dalai Lama preside over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) The Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) The Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) The Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Attendees listen as the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Attendees gather as the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Attendees receive kata prayer scarves as the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Some attendees pray as the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Attendees celebrate as the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Children sing as the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) People line up to enter before the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) People line up to enter before the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) People line up to enter before the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered at the UBS Arena in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) People enter UBS Arena before the Dalai Lama presides over a prayer ceremony, addressing more than 17,000 people gathered, in New York, Aug. 22, 2024. (RFA Tibetan) Photos edited by Eric Kayne

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Rebels seize junta oil field in central Myanmar

Editor05 mins

Insurgents in central Myanmar seized a junta oil field, rebel groups told Radio Free Asia on Thursday, the fourth such oil facility captured in recent fighting that has seen the military lose significant amounts of territory. Myanmar has produced oil in the Irrawaddy River valley since the 19th century but its offshore gas fields are a much more important source of revenue for the junta that seized power in a 2021 coup. Pro-democracy insurgent members of milita’s known as People’s Defense Forces, or PDFs, in the Magway region seized the Thagyitaung-Sabal oil field in Pakokku township on Tuesday following a pre-dawn assault on about 50 soldiers defending it,  a PDF spokesman told RFA.  “We’ve been holding the field and have soldiers cutting off the ground route,” said Pauk township’s PDF information officer Ko Sit. “Six junta soldiers were killed and two were arrested during the fighting,” he said. He gave no information on casualties among PDF fighters. PDF fighters seized weapons and ammunition, and about six million kyat (US$1,000) in cash, he said. The military responded with airstrikes and sent reinforcements to a police station in nearby Pauk township, Ko Sit said, adding that fighting continued into Wednesday as junta forces tried to regain control of the field. RFA tried to contact Magway region’s junta spokesperson Myo Myint for comment but he did not return calls.  The oil field, operated by the junta-owned conglomerate Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, or  MOGE, produced 119 barrels of crude oil and 2.5 million cubic feet (71,000 cubic meters) of natural gas per day in 2018, according to the Ministry of Electricity and Energy. Thagyitaung-Sabal oil field run by the junta’s Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise on June 7, 2023. (People’s Spring-Facebook) Resource-rich parts of Myanmar have seen heavy fighting this year as rebel groups try to capture them. Kachin state in northern Myanmar has jade and rare earth mines while parts of Shan state in the northeast has rich ruby mines. PDF groups captured Myaing township’s Kyauk Khwet oil field on March 2 and Pauk township’s Letpanto oil field on April 19. On Aug. 15, PDF forces occupied the Pu Htoe Lon oil field in Gangaw township.  RFA was not immediately able to contact the MOGE for comment about the latest loss of an oil field.   The U.S. Treasury Department has described the MOGE as “the largest single source of foreign revenue for Burma’s military regime, providing hundreds of millions of dollars each year.” Last October, it announced sanctions against MOGE, banning companies from providing it with financial services. Magway region has no privately owned oil fields, after the junta ordered their closure in June last year. Although it gave no reason, owners and workers said the junta was worried that profits were being used to fund PDFs. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Mike Firn. 

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Lao and Chinese security forces raid call centers in the Golden Triangle

Editor06 mins

Lao and Chinese security forces detained 771 people in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone during a joint operation conducted ahead of a deadline for illegal call centers in the notorious zone to close. Authorities in northern Laos have notified call centers in the Chinese-run special economic zone, or SEZ,  that they have until Sunday to shut down their operations. Scamming operations run by Chinese nationals who try to trick people into fake investments are rife in the zone. Many of the workers are mistreated and prevented from leaving the premises. The Golden Triangle SEZ along the Mekong River in Bokeo province in northern Laos has been a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese visitors, as well as a haven for online fraud, human trafficking, prostitution and illegal drug activities. The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone Command dismantles a gang of telecommunication fraudsters in a video posted to their Facebook page in Bokeo Province, Laos, Aug. 20, 2024. (Mass Media of Public Security via Facebook) The Lao government’s closure order came after an Aug. 9 meeting between the Bokeo provincial governor, high-ranking officials from the Lao Ministry of Public Security, and Zhao Wei, the chairman of the Golden Triangle SEZ. The joint raids with Chinese authorities began on Aug. 12, according to the Lao Ministry of Public Security website. Among the 771 people detained were 275 Laotians, 231 Burmese and 108 Chinese, the ministry said. Other nationalities included people from the Philippines, India, Indonesia, Ethiopia and Vietnam. “Most of them are just workers who were hired to work at the centers,” a ministry official told Radio Free Asia. “It’s a form of human trafficking because they were lured to come to the SEZ to work at stores or restaurants, but later they were forced to work as scammers.” Computers and cellphones A Bokeo provincial official, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, said many of the Chinese citizens who were arrested were in leadership roles at the call centers.  “We handed over all the Chinese to Chinese authorities at the border gate in Luang Namtha province several days ago,” she said. “Other foreigners, such as Indians and Filipinos, are waiting for their respective embassies to pick them up.” Most of the arrested Lao nationals were booked, reeducated and handed over to family members, she said. Authorities have also seized more than 2,000 pieces of electronic equipment, including 709 computers and 1,896 mobile phones, according to the ministry. “All Chinese people and equipment seized from the raid have been sent back to China to comply with the agreement between the Lao Ministry of Public Security and the Chinese counterparts,” a Luang Namtha province official told RFA. RELATED STORIES Laos orders Golden Triangle scammers out of zone by end of month 280 Chinese arrested in Laos for alleged online scamming Laos repatriates 268 Chinese suspected of scamming In the first half of 2024, as many as 400 call centers were operating in the Golden Triangle SEZ. The centers mostly targeted Chinese, which eventually prompted authorities in China to team up with their counterparts in Laos. The owner of a Vientiane employment agency that hires workers for Chinese companies in the SEZ said they have paused recruitment activities and are waiting to see what happens after Sunday’s deadline. “If the police stop raiding the places, we’ll be back in business,” he said. Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed.

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Rohingya refugees drown fleeing Myanmar’s war as concerns mount

Editor08 mins

Twenty-six members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority drowned when their boat capsized as they were trying to flee to Bangladesh, witnesses said, an accident likely to compound fears that the largely Muslim community is facing a new round of genocide. Rohingya living in Rakhine state in western Myanmar have been caught in crossfire between ethnic minority insurgents fighting for self-determination against Myanmar’s military, with both sides accused of killing them. Some analysts have warned that the latest attacks are worse than those inflicted on the community in 2017, when a Myanmar military crackdown against Rohingya militants triggered an exodus of some 700,000 people to Bangladesh. As then, Rohingya are again fleeing the violence to Bangladesh, many crossing a border river in small boats. On Monday, a crowded boat crossing the Naf River to Bangladesh sank killing 26 of those onboard, witnesses said, the latest in a spate of deadly accidents on the river. “There were 30 people on the boat including 18 children. Only four survived. The rest died,” said one of the witnesses who declined to be identified because of security fears. Rescue workers searching for bodies had found seven victims, including four children and a pregnant woman, he added. Aung Kyaw Moe, deputy minister of human rights for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, said the boat was heading to Bangladesh because of intense fighting in Maungdaw township on the border between junta troops and the Arakan Army, or AA, insurgent group. “They fled for their lives. They were worried about where the heavy artillery would fall,” he said. “The Naf River is dangerous because of the ebb and flow of the tide. They had to risk their lives.” Aung Kyaw Moe said the situation in Rakhine state was confusing because some areas were controlled by junta forces while others were in the hands of the AA, with tens of thousands of Rohingya caught up in the conflict. The AA draws its support from the largely Buddhist ethnic Rakhine community, the majority in the state. The rebels are fighting Myanmar’s military for greater autonomy, in alliance with ethnic minority forces from other areas and democracy activists who took up arms after the army overthrew an elected government in 2021. Both sides have been accused of killing Rohingya, with AA fighters blamed for attacking people believed to be supporting junta forces. On Aug. 5, dozens of Rohingya people were killed by fire from heavy weapons as they waited for boats to cross to Bangladesh, survivors told Radio Free Asia. Some survivors said the AA was responsible though the insurgents denied that. RELATED STORIES Arakan Army seizes key town in southern Myanmar Attacks against Rohingyas ‘now worse than 2017 Rebels evacuate 13,000 Rohingyas amid battle for Myanmar’s Maungdaw Torched homes On Aug. 12, Human Rights Watch said both the junta and the AA had committed extrajudicial killings and widespread arson against Rohingya, Rakhine and other civilians in Rakhine state. “Ethnic Rohingya and Rakhine civilians are bearing the brunt of the atrocities that the Myanmar military and opposition Arakan Army are committing,” said the group’s Asia director Elaine Pearson. “Both sides are using hate speech, attacks on civilians, and massive arson to drive people from their homes and villages, raising the specter of ethnic cleansing.” The recent attacks on Rohingya were “worse than in 2017” and represents a “second wave of genocide”, two experts told a press briefing in the United States this month. There were about 60,000 displaced people in Rakhine state before the latest round of fighting resumed late last year but now there are more than 500,000, aid groups there say. Echoing growing concerns about the Rohingya, the U.K.-based Burma Human Rights Network, or BHRN, called on Wednesday for the international community to protect Rohingya, particularly those in Maungdaw. It cited witnesses as saying many Rohingya had been killed in boat accidents or from bombs on the banks of the Naf River. The group cited witnesses as saying AA fighters had torched Rohingya homes in Maungdaw.  “These problems started when the junta forcibly recruited Rohingya for military service,” Kyaw Win, director of Burma Human Rights Network, told RFA. “If there are violations by AA troops on the ground, the AA needs to be exposed and action needs to be taken.” The AA, in an Aug. 18 statement, accused “Muslim armed forces” of setting fire to homes and it warned that rights activists making accusations could affect harmony between ethnic groups. The AA said it had evacuated nearly 20,000 people, including Rohingya, from embattled Maungdaw town and would move more to safety. Kyaw Win said forces opposed to the junta throughout the country, including the National Unity Government and other insurgent groups, had been reluctant to criticize the AA, their anti-junta ally.  But he said the international community should investigate the AA’s actions and take measures, including sanctions, if necessary. Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Uyghurs sentenced to cumulative 4.4 million years in prison: study

Editor010 mins

All told, Uyghurs imprisoned by China in the far-western region of Xinjiang have been sentenced to a cumulative 4.4 million years, a report by Yale University’s Genocide Studies Program says. And the true tally is probably far higher, researchers said. The figure highlights the scale and severity of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the mostly Muslim Uyghurs since 2017, when thousands of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities were herded into re-education camps and prisons. The 25-page report, “Uyghur Race as the Enemy: China’s Legalized Authoritarian Oppression & Mass Imprisonment,” frames the massive incarceration not only as a crime against humanity and genocide, but also as a form of “dangerous lawfare” designed to erode the Uyghurs’ future prospects for dignity, prosperity and freedom.  The study drew on information from the Xinjiang Victims Database, which has data on nearly 62,700 Uyghurs detained in Xinjiang, based on leaked Chinese police documents and other records. Researchers also studied records from the Xinjiang High People’s Procuratorate from 2017 to 2021. It does not include numbers from years since then, after the court stopped publishing data, meaning the true number is much higher. They found 13,114 cases that included a prison sentence, with an average term of 8.8 years, and multiplied the figure by 500,000, which they called a “conservative” figure based on the 540,000 individuals prosecuted by court from 2017 to 2021, to get 4.4 million years. “This is happening on a scale that the world has not seen,” said Uyghur human rights lawyer and advocate Rayhan Asat, principal author of the report. “And if China is allowed to fulfill the 4.4 million years of a cumulative imprisonment it has sentenced the Uyghur people to, it will mean a total ethnic incapacitation for the Uyghur people.” RELATED STORIES UN rights chief calls on China to protect human rights in Tibet and Xinjiang Rights groups blast UN for inaction on China’s repression in Xinjiang Call for debate on rights violations in Xinjiang rejected by UN Human Rights Council UN human rights chief issues damning report on Chinese abuses in Xinjiang This data is crucial for understanding the profound human rights violations and the long-term impacts on the Uyghur community. ‘Legalized human rights abuse’ The Chinese government uses “legalized authoritarianism” to extend the reach of the authoritarian state by weaponizing its legal system against people critical of state policies, the report said. In the case of Xinjiang, Beijing has recognized the Uyghur identity as an enemy and has used laws such as Article 120 of the Criminal Law governing terrorist crimes, the Counter-Terrorism Law, and the Xinjiang Implementing Measures for the Counter-Terrorism Law “to legitimize human rights abuses,” it said. “The involvement of laws as a means of carrying [out] human rights abuses sufficiently characterizes Uyghur incarceration as a legalized human rights abuse,” it said. The study also noted that while the Chinese authorities make public criminal records in other parts of the country, records from almost 90% of cases in Xinjiang are not public. Asat told Radio Free Asia that she wanted to contextualize the consequences of China’s actions for the entire Uyghur population given that the mass incarceration of Uyghurs without due process and with disproportionately harsh imprisonment is already horrific in isolation.  She has publicly campaigned on behalf of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China, including her brother Ekpar Asat, who has been held in detention in Xinjiang since 2016.  “With a cumulative imprisonment of 4.4 million years — a conservative estimate — it’s nearly impossible for the population to carry on their culture and community — our culture and community,” she said. Human toll The analysis comes before the second anniversary on Aug. 31 of a report by former U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet who visited Xinjiang in May 2022 and said China’s mass detentions of Uyghurs and other Turkic minorities in the region may constitute crimes against humanity. Her successor, Volker Türk, this March urged China to carry out recommendations from his office to protect human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet and across the country, but Beijing ignored his call. “[In] the context of mass imprisonment, it gives an idea of just how much, human capital is lost to the Uyghur community, the Uyghur population in China as a result of what is arguably a political and arbitrary, punitive, ethnically-based system of mass imprisonment,” said David J. Simon, director of the university’s Genocide Studies Program. “The one other thing I will add about that figure is that the authors of the report have stressed to me that it is a conservative estimate — that the real number, the number of years that Uyghur political prisoners may actually be facing under these laws, could actually be substantially higher,” he told RFA. The report makes several recommendations to address the issue.  It says Türk, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, and U.N. member states must trigger all accountability mechanisms to pressure China to free innocent detainees and to use diplomatic tools to collectively push for the release of all imprisoned Uyghurs. It also recommends that individual states declare they are not willing to do business with China and to impose targeted sanctions like those already imposed by the United States, Britain, the European Union and Canada. The report also recommends that the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission and the OHCHR jointly condemn Beijing’s actions and establish a Commission of Inquiry in China to investigate atrocity crimes.  “It’s been nearly a decade after China rolled out its extensive atrocity campaigns against the Uyghurs, and the world’s attention is slowly waning due to other crises emerging,” Asat said. “But the horrors in the Uyghur region have not ceased.” With additional reporting by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Malcolm Foster.

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Myanmar rebels capture last junta base in township on China border

Editor06 mins

One of Myanmar’s most powerful insurgent armies has taken full control of a strategically important township in Kachin state on the border with China, its information officer told Radio Free Asia. The Kachin Independence Army, or KIA, together with People’s Defense Forces loyal to the shadow National Unity Government, defeated junta forces to capture their last remaining battalion base in Momauk township in northern Myanmar on Monday, Col. Naw Bu said. “We were able to completely seize Infantry Battalion 437,” he said. “The military council launched airstrikes but now we can say we have taken control of the whole of Momauk township.” There were casualties on both sides, Naw Bu said, but he declined to give details. RFA telephoned the junta’s Kachin state spokesman and social affairs minister Moe Min Thei to ask about Momauk but he did not answer. The KIA, fighting for self-determination against the forces of the junta that toppled a democratically elected government in 2021, launched an initial attack on Momauk on May 7, then began their final push, along with their allies, on July 24. Momauk is about 130 kilometers (870 miles) south of the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina, and only about 14 kilometers (9 miles) east of the town of Bhamo where the junta’s Operations and Command Headquarters 21 is based,  Naw Bu said. Junta forces had withdrawn towards Bhamo, which is on the east bank of the Irrawaddy River, he said. The KIA and its allies have captured more than 20 junta camps in the township since late July and about 200 junta camps in the whole of Kachin state since the beginning of the year, he said. RELATED STORIES China fires into Myanmar after junta airstrike on border, group says Fighting flares near state capital in north Myanmar Northern Myanmar residents caught up in fighting, dozens hurt Residents flee fighting Junta airstrikes, artillery attacks and arson led to the destruction of more than 100 homes in Momauk and more than 3,000 people had fled, many to the safety of areas under KIA control, residents said. One displaced resident sheltering near the Chinese border said he was afraid of more fighting. “The town is being cleared up but I haven’t gone back,” said the man, who wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons.  “I would like to check my home if I could but I’m still worried that there will be more fighting,” he said, referring to Bhamo and Mansi towns where junta forces are based. “There are so many difficulties when we flee and shelter with relatives”. The KIA is one of several insurgent forces to make significant gains against junta forces since late last year. An alliance of three rebel factions has pushed junta forces out of major towns in Shan state, to the southeast of Kachin state, while the military has lost ground to ethnic minority insurgents in Rakhine state in the west, and in Kayah and Kayin states in the east, as well as in parts of the deep south. The junta has responded with airstrikes including on the KIA headquarters at Lai Zar on Aug. 15. That attack unsettled neighboring China, which fired warning shots at junta jets, according to the KIA. The United Nations says about 3 million people have been forced from their homes by the fighting in Myanmar, many since clashes surged at the beginning of the year.  Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Mike Firn.

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Photos: Myanmar motorists queue for hours as fuel shortages persist

Editor03 mins

Residents in northern Myanmar’s Mandalay city and Taunggyi city in Shan state have been queuing all day and – in some instances – overnight to keep their spot in line for the limited amount of gasoline being sold.  Citizen photos provided to RFA show hundreds of motorists in Taunggyi on Aug. 18, queuing to purchase fuel.  A Taunggyi resident told RFA that when gasoline sells out for the day, they have to line up in front of the stores a day in advance to get the fuel that won’t be sold until the next day.  “As soon as the gas distribution quota for the day runs out, people must queue for the next day’s distribution, leading to a full day’s wait,” the resident said.   “Without queuing, getting fuel is quite difficult. Additionally, with more people moving to Taunggyi from other areas, the number of motorcycles and cars in the city has increased.” Similarly, in Mandalay, locals say that they have to wait in line overnight because there isn’t enough fuel for cars. Last week, RFA reported that petrol stations in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, were closed because of a severe shortage that has forced gasoline suppliers to ration fuel. It’s the latest evidence of an economy struggling with a multitude of problems since the military overthrew an elected government in 2021.  The root of the shortage appeared to be the plummeting value of the kyat currency, and the junta’s efforts to rein in the inflation that the weak kyat is causing, along with the economic disruption stemming from the conflict that has swept the country since the military takeover.  However, the Myanmar junta’s Fuel Import, Storage and Distribution Supervisory Committee stated through junta media outlets on Aug. 14 that there is no fuel shortage. Waiting for hours, motorists queue for fuel in Taunggyi city, Shan State, Myanmar on Aug. 18, 2024. (Citizen Photo) Motorists queue to buy gasoline in Taunggyi city, Shan State, Myanmar on Aug. 18, 2024. (Citizen Photo) Hundreds of motorists wait to purchase gasoline in Taunggyi city, Shan State, Myanmar on Aug. 18, 2024. (Citizen Photo)

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South Korea jails scam group leader for 8 years over Laos, Myanmar operation

Editor06 mins

A South Korean court sentenced the head of an online scam group that operated in Laos and Myanmar to eight years in prison for luring South Koreans with a false promise of “making big money” and forcing them to commit fraudulent crimes. Nearly 60 victims lost more than 23 billion won (US$17 million) between May and October last year after the scam group imprisoned victims in offices set up in special economic zones in Laos and Myanmar to commit fraudulent crimes, the Daegu District Court revealed.  The court also sentenced a senior officer and a recruiter of the group to four years in prison each. Ten other group members, including a “consultant,” were jailed for up to to three years. Online gambling and scam centers that have proliferated in Southeast Asia in recent years. University of Texas researchers estimated in a March report that scammers had tricked investors out of more than US$75 billion since January 2020.  The South Korean scam group targeted financially struggling individuals by presenting them with falsified data, convincing them that there were promising investment opportunities in Laos and Myanmar, the court added.  “The victims are complaining of extreme economic and mental suffering as a result of the crime and are pleading for severe punishment for the defendants,” the court said, explaining the reason for the sentences. Lured by offers for jobs such as Korean language interpretation and cryptocurrency sales, South Korean job seekers are forced into illegal activities such as voice phishing, investment scams, romance scams, and sex trafficking, according to South Korea’s foreign ministry.  Employers compound the abuse by confiscating passports for “visa processing,” and then demanding payment for travel and living expenses. Victims can be detained and assaulted. Given the increase in criminal activities targeting South Koreans, the ministry in January imposed a travel ban, known as a level 4 alert, for the Lao Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone from Feb. 1. As of Monday, the ban was in place. South Koreans must obtain a special government permit if they wish to stay in areas under a level 4 alert, the highest of a government travel warning system. Those who remain in a country without permission face criminal penalties under the passport law. In November last year, South Korea announced that 19 citizens had been rescued by Myanmar police after being held by an  illegal business in a town in eastern Myanmar on the Thai border.. RELATED NEWS Laos orders Golden Triangle scammers out of zone by end of month Laos concerned over scam ring influx amid China’s Myanmar crackdown Myanmar police rescue 19 South Korean captives Southeast Asia’s scam centers are increasingly raising concern around the world and governments in the region are being pressed to take action against them. Authorities in  Laos recently gave illegal call centers operating in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone until the end of the month to clear out or face police action.  Following an Aug. 9 meeting between the governor of Bokeo province, high-ranking officials from the Lao Ministry of Public Security, and Zhao Wei, the chairman of the Golden Triangle SEZ, Lao authorities ordered all scam centers to be “completely shut down by Aug. 25,” according to state media reports and an official from the public security ministry. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA Lao on Monday that the centers were given the opportunity to “remove all of their belongings by the deadline.” “After that, we’ll set up a special force to enforce the order,” he said. Edited by RFA Staff. 

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