Day: June 21, 2021

Security forces loyal to Myanmar’s military regime are believed to have killed at least 13 civilians over the weekend, including four members of the same family, a young man delivering invitations to his wedding, and two people returning home from a soccer game.

On Saturday night, unidentified gunmen stormed a home in the Nyaungbin Thar ward of Sagaing region’s Kalay township, killing 50-year-old Win Zaw Oo, his 48-year-old wife San San Maw, his 23-year-old son Thiha Aung, and his 35-year-old son-in-law Zaw Zaw.

A neighbor, who spoke to RFA’s Myanmar Service on condition of anonymity citing a fear of reprisal, said the gunmen entered the home through a nearby alleyway before opening fire.

“The first gunshot was heard at about 8:30 p.m. It wasn’t very loud, so the other neighbors may not have heard,” he said.

“Then we heard voices saying, ‘Come out, open the door, come outside’ and then there were more gunshots. Win Zaw Oo and his son tried to run to the house across the street, but they were shot and killed instantly.”

According to the neighbor, San San Maw and Zaw Zaw were killed inside the house. Win Zaw Oo’s daughter, 25-year-old San Shwe Oo, and a visitor were also shot and wounded, while another visitor escaped unharmed.

The gunmen appeared to be wearing military uniforms and boots, as well as red scarves around their necks, he said, adding that it was unclear what kind of guns they were carrying because of the darkness.

Residents told RFA that the family of the deceased had been living in Nyaungbin Thar for the past two decades and “had ties with the military.” The Irrawaddy online news agency cited residents as saying that junta soldiers had killed the four in a raid, during which around 40 million kyats (U.S. $24,300), a car and other possessions were seized.

A statement issued by the junta on Sunday said that “supporters of the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) party” and “terrorists” had carried out a series of killings, assassinations, and destructive acts in recent weeks, including “setting up landmines to intimidate peaceful people.”

It claimed Saturday’s killings were perpetrated by such “destructive elements,” adding that an investigation of the scene by security forces had discovered four dead, as well as the injured daughter, who was taken to a nearby military hospital for treatment.

However, a member of the Kalay branch of the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) militia that was formed in the aftermath of the military’s Feb. 1 overthrow of the government to protect the public from junta troops told RFA that his group had nothing to do with the incident.

He claimed the militia had obtained evidence that the military was responsible for the weekend killings and others, which he said were blamed on groups such as his to “tarnish the image of PDFs all over the country.”

“We have witnesses from the surrounding area in this case. It was widely reported on social media that the military came in their uniforms. We also have our own evidence that they did it,” he said.

“We strongly believe that the PDFs do not do these kinds of things to the people because we fight to defend them.”

Relatives of those killed on Saturday declined to comment when contacted by RFA because of security concerns.

The four victims were buried Sunday, according to residents, who said that military troops searched the cellphones of mourners attending the funeral. San Shwe Oo was taken to a hospital in Mandalay on Monday for additional treatment, family members said.

Residents of Kalay claim that more than 40 people have been killed in the township since the February coup d’état.

Other weekend killings

A day after the incident in Kalay township, security forces in Mandalay region’s Singu township shot and killed a young bridegroom named Kyaw Kyaw Myo as he and a friend distributed invitations for his upcoming wedding to villagers in Nyein Chan Aung ward by motorcycle, residents said.

“He was shot at around 8:30 p.m. while asking people to attend and help out at the wedding,” one resident told RFA. “He didn’t understand why he had been shot. His friend was also arrested.”

The wedding of Kyaw Kyaw Myo and his fiancé Aye Aye Aung was slated to take place on June 24 at the bride’s residence in Singu township’s Gyobin village. Instead, Kyaw Kyaw Myo’s family retrieved his body from the military on Monday and is now planning his funeral.

Residents of Letpanhla village told RFA that Kyaw Kyaw Myo’s friend remains in military custody.

Also on Sunday, security forces in the Mon state capital Mawlamyaing shot and killed two people who failed to stop their motorbike at a checkpoint while returning home from a soccer game, according to residents.

An official with the Mawlamyaing Social Relief Association, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he and his colleagues helped to carry the bodies of the two men, who were later identified as Moe Zaw Oo and Zaw Min Oo from Abit village in Chaungzon township’s Bilukyun ward.

“As far as we know, they were asked to stop the motorcycle for an inspection,” the official said. “I heard from the police that they resisted the inspection and the forces fired at them.”

An eyewitness to the shooting said Moe Zaw Oo and Zaw Min Oo were shot four and three times respectively. He said their bodies were taken to the Mawlamyaing People’s Hospital on Sunday evening, and returned to their families on Monday.

Additionally, the Irrawaddy cited militia members as saying that junta soldiers in Sagaing region’s Myaung township shot and killed three members of the Sanpya Social Organization on Saturday night as they returned home to Magwe region’s Yesagyo township in an ambulance.

It said that an additional three people were killed in Sagaing region’s Kani and Khin-U townships on Saturday.

Attempts by RFA to reach Myanmar’s military spokesman for comment on the killings over the weekend went unanswered Monday.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), the military has killed at least 873 people since it orchestrated a coup on Feb. 1, claiming that the NLD’s landslide victory in the country’s November 2020 election was the result of widespread voter fraud. The junta has yet to present evidence of its claims and security forces have responded to nationwide protests with deadly force.

AAPP says some 5,045 people have been detained, charged or sentenced in the five months since the coup.

The group reported over the weekend that at least 25 people have been killed by the military while in detention since February—the latest of which was a 27-year-old man named Thet Paing Htoo who was beaten to death after being arrested on Saturday for his alleged involvement in anti-coup protests.

Birthday flower protest

Also on Monday, supporters of NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi held a widespread flower protest to mark her 76^th birthday and demand her immediate release.

The State Counselor who, along with several other NLD officials, was detained in the aftermath of the February putsch, has been charged in six cases in the capital Naypyidaw and one in Yangon.

The charges — violating the Official Secrets Act, bribery, incitement and sedition, violating the telecommunications law, possession of unlicensed two-way radios, and violating protocols set up to contain the spread of the coronavirus – are widely seen as designed to end her role in politics.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s lawyer, Min Min Soe, relayed a message of thanks to well-wishers after meeting with her on the second week of her hearing on the last three charges in Naypyidaw on Monday, adding that the NLD chief is in good health.

He said she listened carefully to the cases made by the prosecution, deliberately stating the facts and describing how she was innocent of the charges against her.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s trial, which began on June 14 and is being heard weekly on Mondays and Tuesdays, is expected to be completed within six months.

The democracy icon and Nobel Peace Prize laureate spent a total of 15 years under house arrest over a 21-year period that ended in 2010 under the country’s previous junta regime.

Myanmar’s shadow civilian National Unity Government (NUG) has said that Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained NLD leaders were unlawfully arrested and rejected the charges against them.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

A Cambodian judge on Monday sent three young activists to Phnom Penh’s notorious Prey Sar Prison on an order of pre-trial detention, in a move one rights group called an attack on young Cambodians trying to protect their country’s environment.

Two of the three—Sun Ratha, 26, and Yim Leang Hy, 32—have now been charged with conspiracy and with lèse-majesté, or insulting the king. The third youth activist—Ly Chandaruth, 22—has been charged with plotting to topple Cambodia’s government.

Members of Cambodia’s Mother Nature environmental protection group, the group could face between five to 10 years in prison on conviction. Mother Nature founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, now living outside Cambodia, also faces charges of conspiracy.

Sun Ratha and Ly Chandaravuth were arrested with another activist, Sith Chhivmeng, by Phnom Penh police on June 16 while filming the drainage of sewage and other waste into the Tonle Sap River in front of the Royal Palace in the capital’s Daun Penh district.

Separately, authorities in Kandal province arrested Mother Nature activist Yim Leang Hy at his hometown in the province’s Koh Thom district. Sith Chhivmeng was later released after 24 hours of questioning by policy in Phnom Penh.

Sam Sok Kong, a lawyer for the trio still held, condemned the move by investigating judge In Vannah to send the young activists to Prey Sar, where cases of COVID-19 infection are now surging among inmates, he told RFA on June 21.

“The charges against them are grave, but they were working to build a public movement to protect the environment,” the lawyer said.

“They want to see the government handle environmental issues transparently and with accountability. I feel that they were only trying to help society, which is the right of all [our country’s] citizens,” he said, adding that he is now planning to file an appeal for the activists’ release on bail.

Duong Ry, mother of detained youth activist Sun Ratha, called the judge’s action against her daughter a grave injustice and urged to court to release her, describing Sun Ratha as “a very good citizen who always reached out to help villagers in various districts and provinces.”

“I have never seen her do anything wrong, and instead have always heard her praised by other people. This is all so unfair to her,” she said.

Sun Ratha is an accountant and recent graduate of the University of Cambodia who studied there on a scholarship, while Yim Leang Hy is a post-graduate scholarship student at the Royal University of Phnom Penh’s Institute of Foreign Languages and Ly Chandaravuth is a senior majoring in law at the Royal University of Economics and Law.

Rights groups condemn arrests

Also speaking to RFA, representatives of Cambodia-based rights groups condemned the charges filed against the three young activists, with Am Sam Ath—deputy director of the rights group Licadho—calling their arrests a violation of their freedom of expression and right to participate in activities protecting the environment.

“These charges [against them] will only invite more criticism of the government itself,” he said.

“The charges against these young activists are an attempt to kill the patriotic and national conscience of the younger generation,” said Ven. Buth Buntenh, founder of the Monk Network for Social Justice. “It is like destroying young bamboo shoots so that those shoots will not grow and become bamboo trees in the future,” he said.

“This is an insult to our own people and will only lead neighboring countries to look down on us,” he added.

Speaking to RFA on June 20—the day before the three activists were sent to Prey Sar—Mother Nature founder Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson said their arrests will now clear the way for private companies or businessmen to destroy Cambodia’s environment at will.

“Whether it is cutting down trees in Prey Lang forest, illegal logging of rosewood in the Kravanh mountain range, dredging sand along the Mekong river or in Koh Kong, or mining for gold in Preah Vihear or Mondulkiri provinces, this will all now be more convenient for them,” he said.

“And there will be no obstacles for them now to persecute local people and evade taxes.”

“Companies and individuals involved in illegal business activities are going to profit from these arrests,” he said.

Reported by RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Sovannarith Keo. Written in English by Richard Finney.

The largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group in the United States has called on the Hilton hospitality company to halt the construction of a hotel in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) to be built on the site of a destroyed Uyghur mosque in the city of Hotan (in Chinese, Hetian).

Recent reporting by the UK newspaper the Daily Telegraph revealed that Chinese authorities had torn down the mosque and were planning to replace it with a large shopping center, including a Hampton, a hotel brand owned by Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.

Huan Peng Hotel Management Company, Ltd. told the newspaper that the land on which the hotel is being built was purchased at a public auction by a local landowner in 2019. The Chinese company signed a contract with him in August 2020 to develop a Hampton hotel.

RFA’s Uyghur service confirmed that the destroyed mosque was the Duling mosque in central Hotan, a city of 409,000 people in southwestern Xinjiang.

On June 15, Edward Ahmed Mitchell, national deputy director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), wrote a letter to Christopher Nassetta, chief executive officer of Virginia-based Hilton Worldwide, calling on the company to “stand on the right side of history by announcing that Hilton will be canceling this project and ceasing all operations in the Uyghur region of China until its government ends its persecution of millions of innocent people.”

In a telephone interview with RFA, Mitchell said that opening a hotel in a place where a genocide is occurring is immoral and illegal.

The U.S. State Department in January designated abuses in the region were part of a campaign of genocide. The parliaments of Belgium, the Czech Republic, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania have passed motions determining that China’s policies in the XUAR constitute genocide.

Authorities in the XUAR are believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in a vast network of internment camps since early 2017. China says they are vocational training centers to combat radicalism and prepare young Uyghurs for employment and it stridently rejects genocide accusations.

“Hilton has got to do the right thing, they have got to cancel this project, Mitchell said. “If they continue with the project, they are being complicit in a genocide. Simple as that.”

Contacted by RFA’s Uyghur Service, a spokesperson for the hotel chain, who declined to be identified by name, said: “We are aware of the controversy, but I’m not able to give you a statement at this time.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), in a written statement to RFA’s Uyghur Service on June 16, said U.S. companies, including Hilton, need to increase their awareness of the ongoing crackdown and atrocities committed against Uyghurs and other Muslims in the XUAR.

USCIRF vice chairman Nury Turkel told RFA in a phone interview that many American companies have yet to wake up to the crisis in the Uyghur region, and that the U.S. State Department is currently preparing a new business advisory for U.S. firms to follow.

“These companies [profiting from] ongoing genocide and crimes against humanity and these American companies who are sponsoring the Winter Olympics slated for next year are asleep,” he said, referring to the 2022 Winter Games which will be held in Beijing. “They have yet to wake up.”

“Just what will wake them up, perhaps law passed by Congress or the executive branch, is a very pressing matter,” Turkel said.

Hilton Worldwide also operates a Hampton hotel at Urumqi International Airport, the Hilton Urumqi, and a Conrad hotel in the city that will open for business on Aug. 31.

Moving ahead with plans

In January, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a Withhold Release Order (WRO) to detain all cotton products and tomatoes from the XUAR at the country’s ports of entry, saying that the agency had identified indicators of forced labor.

The move followed similar steps in 2020 against hair-product and garment producers in the XUAR.

Brenda Smith, CBP’s executive assistant commissioner for trade, told RFA’s Uyghur Service at the time that the WRO was “a message to the trade community that we expect them to do their due diligence around shipments coming from that region and that we will detain and ask questions if a shipment that falls under those parameters arrives in the U.S.”

Robert S. McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director, said that Hilton will be helping to cover up a genocide if it does not stop the project. He also said that the U.S. government should investigate whether Hilton has violated the law.

“The U.S. government recognizes a campaign of genocide being carried out by the government of China, targeting Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minorities in Xinjiang,” he said. “And yet, Hilton, a U.S.-based company is moving ahead with its plans to build on this desecrated mosque.”

“It’s unconscionable, and Hilton Worldwide Holdings needs to immediately cancel its plans to build this hotel, because otherwise it would be profiting off the genocide of Uyghur Muslims,” McCaw said. “It would actually be helping cover up the genocide of Muslims in that region, by building over their history, their culture, and the fact that they lived in that region.”

As part of the process of wiping out Uyghur culture and religious identity, the Chinese state has destroyed or damaged about 16,000 of the more than 24,000 mosques in the XUAR mostly since 2017, according to a September 2020 report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a think tank.

Mitchell called on the U.S. Congress to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which aims to address the systematic use for Uyghur forced labor in the XUAR and ensure that U.S. companies are not complicit.

The legislation would change U.S. policy on the XUAR with the goal of ensuring that American entities are not funding forced labor among ethnic minorities in the region. The bill passed in the House of Representatives by a 406-3 vote in September 2020.

“If corporations are not going to do the right thing, then the American government must require them to do the right thing,” he said. “No one should be able — no American corporation should be able — to benefit from our country at the same time they are supporting a genocide in another country.”

Congress is also considering passage of the Uyghur Human Rights Protection Act, which designates Uyghurs who are at risk of refoulement in multiple countries as priority refugees and allows them to apply to resettle in the U.S. The bill was introduced in April.

Reported by Jelil Kashgary for RFA’s Uyghur Service. Translated by the Uyghur Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

The democratic government of Taiwan said on Monday it will keep its representative office in Hong Kong manned by a single official, despite an ongoing row over visas.

Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) chief Chiu Tai-san said the government would keep its Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Hong Kong going despite the refusal of visas for officials representing the country, which has been diplomatically isolated following prolonged international pressure from China.

“The goal [of withholding visas] is to belittle our country and force our staff to bow their heads to the Beijing authorities,” he said.

He said the row had been sparked by an “unreasonable” request from Hong Kong’s government. Reuters reported that the request had required Taiwanese officials to sign a document recognizing Beijing’s territorial claim that Taiwan is a part of China.

“Our government stands firm in guarding national dignity and lodges stern condemnation and a warning to the Chinese Communist Party and Hong Kong government,” he said.

The office would normally have a full complement of 19 staff members from Taiwan, as well as some locally hired employees, but will stay open with just one officer still in post, Chiu said.

“Maintaining our offices in Hong Kong and Macao is still mutually beneficial,” Chiu told reporters. “Unless there are developments that seriously hinder the operation of these offices, we do not have a plan to close them.”

Chiu’s comments came after Hong Kong closed its representative office in Taipei in response to the Taiwan government’s setting up of an office to process applications for political asylum for Hong Kong residents fleeing a broadening crackdown on dissent and political opposition under a national security law imposed by Beijing from July 1, 2020.

The formerly Portuguese-run city of Macau, which has been under ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control since 1999, followed suit a few weeks later on June 19.

Taiwan’s office for Hong Kong residents provides a one-stop-shop service to Hongkongers wanting to study, do business, invest, or seek asylum in the country, as part of a humanitarian assistance project Taiwan offered to Hong Kong people in the wake of mass arrests during and since the 2019 protest movement against the rolling back of democratic freedoms in the city.

Hong Kong’s government has accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan of “offering assistance to violent protesters and people who tried to shatter Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability.”

Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said that Taiwan had violated Beijing’s claim on its territory, although the island has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People’s Republic of China.

Deepening mistrust

Lin Fei-fan, deputy secretary-general of Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said seven Taiwanese staff had been forced to leave after refusing to sign the “declaration.”

“Beijing and the Hong Kong government continue to prohibit overseas politicians [who oppose China], media workers, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from entering Hong Kong,” Lin said in a social media post.

“Many international organizations and journalists have also been forced to leave Hong Kong,” he wrote. “Now, the CCP wants to isolate Hong Kong people by forcing Taiwan to withdraw from its representative office.”

He said Beijing’s actions would serve only to deepen the mistrust of the CCP among Taiwanese.

Under CCP general secretary Xi Jinping, China has stepped up its rhetoric claiming the island as part of its territory, and has refused to rule out a military invasion.

But President Tsai has repeatedly said that the country’s 24 million people have no wish to give up their sovereignty or their democratic way of life.

Until tensions rose in the wake of Tsai’s re-election in January 2020, Taiwan had been Hong Kong’s second largest trading partner, while Hong Kong was Taiwan’s fourth largest trading partner.

Since then, aircraft belonging to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have made regular flights through Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

In 2018, the Pentagon warned that the PLA is gradually preparing for a possible invasion of Taiwan, as the CCP “continued to develop and deploy increasingly advanced military capabilities intended to coerce Taiwan, signal Chinese resolve, and gradually improve capabilities for an invasion.”

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has said Washington will no longer seek to “appease” China on Taiwan, after the State Department announced an end to a ban on high-level official and diplomatic contact with Taiwanese officials on Jan. 9, at the tail end of the Trump administration.

Reported by Hwang Chun-mei for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Chung Kuang-cheng for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Thousands of people tuned in to watch the last online TV news broadcast by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily newspaper on Monday, as its owners warned the paper would likely shut down entirely by next weekend.

“Welcome to Apple Daily news,” the presenter said. “Sadly, I’m here to tell you that this broadcast will be our last news program.”

Users left messages of protest and support on the paper’s YouTube channel.

“Without the Apple Daily, we have zero confidence that the news we are getting is true,” wrote user Elsie Wong, while tongtong417 wrote: “[I will] always support Apple.”

“[You were] freedom fighters for press freedom … the people of Hong Kong salute you,” Yu Lok Tin added.

Many other users thanked the paper, which is owned by jailed pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai’s Next Digital, the headquarters of which was raided by national security police last week, and its assets frozen.

The board of directors will make a final decision on the matter on Friday pending the results of a bid to have the group’s assets unfrozen, the paper reported on Monday.

Next Digital’s board sent a letter to Hong Kong’s secretary for security, John Lee, requesting that some of the company’s assets be unfrozen so that employees can be paid, the report said.

“If the decision is taken on Friday to cease operations, the online news section of Apple Daily is expected to stop updating on Saturday morning at the earliest, while the final print edition will also be published on Saturday,” it said.

Around 500 national security and uniformed police raided Next Digital’s headquarters in Tseung Kwan O on Thursday, arresting five company executives on suspicion of “colluding with foreign powers to endanger national security” and freezing H.K.$18 million of the group’s assets.

“The primary concern is the safety and well being of the staff, and everybody is doing all they can to make sure that they are taken care of,” Mark Simon, an adviser to Jimmy Lai, told RFA.

“We are taking every action we can to stay alive,” he said, but declined to go into details.

Articles predate relevant law

Simon said police had been cagey so far about exactly how articles published by the paper as early as 2019 could have violated the draconian national security law that was imposed on Hong Kong by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from July 1, 2020.

“If the accusation is collusion based on journalism, then the police refusing to show the articles means the accusations are lies,” Simon told RFA.

“If the accusation is based on public, open documents, [then] show the people of Hong Kong and the world what documents and what articles you are talking about … what news and opinion pieces you are talking about.”

Next Digital CEO Cheung Kim-hung and Apple Daily editor-in-chief Ryan Law, were charged with “collusion with foreign powers” under the law, and were denied bail on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the organizers of an annual July 1 protest march, the Civil Human Rights Front, said they were canceling this year’s march in the face of ongoing coronavirus restrictions and “the political atmosphere” amid an ongoing crackdown on public opposition and dissent under the national security law.

Temporary convenor Chung Chung-fai said the organization had basically collapsed after former convenor Figo Chan was jailed in May for taking part in an “illegal assembly” on Oct. 1, 2019.

Police have warned that they could take action against the group after it failed to register as an entity under the Societies Ordinance following a warning letter from the authorities in April.

Reported by Gigi Lee, Cheng Yu Yiu and Kay Lee for RFA’s Cantonese and Mandarin Services. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.